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THE 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF THE ESSENTIAL FORM OF RIGHT 
 METHODS IN TEACHING. 
 
 ©bstrbation, ©eneralijation, Application. 
 
 REVISED EDITION, 
 
 CHARLES DeGARMO, Ph.D. 
 
 President of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa. 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. : 
 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 1893. 
 

 (> 
 
 V yl<c- 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 Bv D. C. Heath & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A NALOGIES play an important role in all explanations 
 of mental phenomena. This is true because nearly all 
 our terms for mental processes and products are borrowed 
 from sense. Among the many analogical theories of mind, 
 and hence of education, two are particularly prominent: 
 (1) That which regards the soul as a germ, containing by 
 involution that which it is to become by evolution, — a self- 
 active power which seizes upon its surroundings, appropriat- 
 ing what is useful for the development of its predetermined 
 form and content ; and (2) that theory which regards the 
 mind at any given stage of its development as the resultant 
 of the manifold forces of its environment, as a product 
 more externally than internally produced. 
 
 The first of these views may be called the germ theory of 
 education ; the second, the architectural theory. According 
 to the first notion, the mind is a self -producer of a predeter- 
 mined product. According to the second, it is the result 
 produced by the educational architect. The first conception 
 makes the teacher merely a gardener; the second makes 
 him an architect of mind. The first demands no science of 
 
 3 
 
 54 1730 
 
4, V \ :^\ './ PREFACE, 
 
 •8duca)fci;on ':f rom tlie subject-matter side; the second compels 
 a study of mind in its more mechanical aspects, and a 
 pedagogical adjustment of the matter of education to the 
 laws of mind-structure. It finds the science of instruction 
 to consist in giving rise to concepts, in co-ordinating and 
 properly relating them. According to this idea, the science 
 of education is the science of the concept, — knowledge, 
 thought-power, intensity and direction of will, follow from 
 an application of the architectonics of concepts. 
 
 At first view, these two theories are mutually exclusive ; 
 but a more careful examination shows them to be mutually 
 complementary. The germ theory finds its truth in the idea 
 of the self-activity of the mind to be educated, and in the 
 fact that the form of all mental activity in knowing, feeling, 
 and willing is predetermined, just as the form of the oak 
 is involved in the acorn. But this analogy breaks down 
 when the content of mind is considered. How knowledge 
 shall be acquired, held and expressed is as much predeter- 
 mined in the infant's mind, as the ultimate form of the 
 plant is involved in the seed from which it springs, — the 
 acorn never produces the maple ; but what this knowledge 
 shall be is not predetermined. A child left at birth upon 
 an uninhabited island, and nourished by beasts, would be- 
 come a beast, at least so far as the content of knowledge is 
 concerned. The practical content of man's knowledge and 
 judgment, and hence of his will and character, depends 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 upon influences and positive forces exterior to himself. 
 Here the architectural theory of education finds its truth •, 
 for, IV hat a man knows, the whole content of his knowing, 
 judging, and willing, depends upon the kind, amount, and 
 arrangement of the subject-matter of education.' In this 
 view, the office of the teacher is magnified : the pedagogy 
 of the subjects of instruction becomes of the greatest 
 importance. 
 
 Again, these two theories of education are but two figura- 
 tive expressions for the manifest truth, that thei'e is a 
 method in the child, and a method in the subject of study. 
 A complete pedagogy of instruction brings these two ele- 
 ments into harmony, makes them complementary the one 
 to the other. The method in the subject at any stage 
 exactly fits a corresponding stage of development in the 
 method in the child. In other words, the development in 
 the subject must be made at all stages to fit the devel- 
 opment of the child. For this reason, the germ and 
 architectural theories of education do not exclude but 
 complement each other, and neither of them can be spared 
 from a perfected science of education. 
 
 The present work deals with one phase of this adjust- 
 ment of subject-matter to mind. It seeks to find the essen- 
 tial forms of methods of instruction, as determined by the 
 general law of development in the mind of the child. It 
 has therefore nothing to do with the content of knowledge, 
 
6 PBEFACE. 
 
 but concerns itself solely with an inquiry as to how we learn, 
 and consequently how we must teach. 
 
 Three-sidedness is a universal property of triangles, so 
 is triangularity ; just so, there are certain necessary and 
 universal characteristics of all rational methods of teaching. 
 To discover, through an analysis of the mental activities 
 involved in knowing, what these essential elements of a 
 good method are, is the function of this volume. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL NOTION. 
 § 1. Formation and Significance of the Individual 
 
 Notion 13 
 
 § 2. Extension of this Term to apply to the Product 
 
 OF Internal Perception 15 
 
 THE GENERAL NOTION. 
 
 § 3. Language reveals the Nature of 'Thought. — 
 A Study of the Noun. — The Common Noun 
 expresses the General Notion. — Extent of 
 the Noun (Notion) 18 
 
 §4. Content of the Noun (Notion). — Relation of 
 Content and Extent. — Psychological vs. Logi- 
 cal YiEW. — How Children form General 
 Notions 19 
 
 § 5. A General Notion cannot be imaged. — A Scheme 
 for the Formation of Individual Images. — 
 Expressed in a Definition 21 
 
 § 6. Extension of Term General Notion to apply to 
 ANY General Truth, whether expressed in a 
 Definition, a Law, a Rule, a Principle, or a 
 
 Moral Maxim 22 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 APPEECEPTION; OR, THE ASSIMILATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 § 7. A Popular View of Apperception .... 24 
 
 § 8. x^PPERCEPTION IMPLIED IN COMMON MENTAL PRO- 
 CESSES 28 
 
 § 9. Scientific View of Apperception .... 33 
 § 10. Relation of Apperception to the Association of 
 
 Ideas 37 
 
 § 11. Psychological Nature of Apperception ex- 
 plained FROM the Standpoint of the Judg- 
 ment 41 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 NECESSARY STAGES OF RATIONAL METHODS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 
 
 § 12. Motives for the Study of the Conditions of 
 
 Apperception 45 
 
 §33. Native Spontaneity of Mind inadequate. — A 
 Function of the Teacher to prepare the Mind 
 FOR Rapid and Efficient Assimilation of New 
 Knowledge "... 45 
 
 § 14. Two Kinds of Activity on the Part of the 
 
 Teacher : (1) Preparation, (2) Presentation . 46 
 
 PREPARATION. 
 
 § 15. Definition of Preparation 46 
 
 § 16. Relation of Preparation to the Analytical 
 
 Judgment 46 
 
 § 17. Kind and Place of Preparation. — Main Points 
 
 to be observed in Preparation 47 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 presentation. 
 
 § 18. Relation of Presentation to the Synthetical 
 
 Judgment 51 
 
 § 19. Points involved in Presentation, but not hebe 
 developed, such as the arrangement of the 
 Curriculum according to the Historical 
 Stages of Culture, and to Concentration . 52 
 
 law of successive clearness. 
 
 § 20. Explanation of this Law 53 
 
 § 21. Clear Apprehension of Individual Facts of the 
 Lesson, and then their Synthesis. — "Step by 
 
 Step" 55 
 
 § 22. Illustrations 56 
 
 THE SERIES. 
 
 § 23. How THE Series arises from Time Conditions. — 
 Illustration of a Mechanical Series. — Re- 
 membering THE Series 57 
 
 § 24. Breaking vs. Extending the Series .... 58 
 § 25. Time and Attention the Conditions for fixing 
 
 the Series in Memory 60 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TEANSITION FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 
 general view. 
 
 § 26. Necessity of Generalization. — Illustrations. — 
 
 Lessing quoted 61 
 
 § 27. Simultaneity of Notions in Consciousness neces- 
 sary TO THE Formation of the General Notion . 64 
 
 § 28. Pure Time Associations vs. Logical Association . 64 
 
 § 29. Comparison of Individual Notions. — Thought, 
 
 NOT Imagination, the Subject of Investigation, 65 
 
 § 30, Process involved in Comparison of Notions pres- 
 ent TO Consciousness. — How do New Classes 
 
 arise, or what is THE NATURE OF INDUCTION? . 65 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 § 31. Dr. W. T. Harris's Explanation. — New Light on 
 
 Apperception 66 
 
 § 32. Nouns express General Notions. — The Maxim, 
 
 " First the Idea, then the Word," examined . 71 
 
 § 33. Progress from Individual to General Notions 
 necessary at all stages of school life. — 
 A Great Problem in Pedagogics, — Pestaloz- 
 zi's View. — Educational Movements vibrate 
 between Underived Generals andUngeneral- 
 izED Particulars. — The Golden Mean . . 73 
 
 SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 § 34. A Distinction needful between Mathematical 
 
 AND Non-Mathematical Generalizations . . 75 
 
 § 35. A priori Nature of Mathematical Truths. — 
 
 Illustrations enable the Mind to grasp them . 75 
 
 § 36. General Notions pertaining to External 
 
 Nature. — Illustrations 77 
 
 § 37. How TO generalize in Political, Social, or Ethi- 
 cal Matters .78 
 
 § 38. ^Esthetic and Religious Generalizations . . 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RETURN FROM GENERAL TO INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 
 § 39. This the Third Grand Stage of Methods. — Lange 
 
 AND PeSTALOZZI QUOTED 81 
 
 §40. Kant's Dictum. — Knowledge must have a Full, 
 Rich Content. — This is gained by the Per- 
 sistent Application of Generals ... 82 
 
 § 41. Application secures Permanency to Generaliza- 
 tions 83 
 
 § 42. Bearing of Application of Generals to Practi- 
 cal Affairs of Life 83 
 
 § 43. Co-ordination of Knowledge secured by a Con- 
 stant Return from General to Individual 
 Notions 84 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 § 44. Cbitique of Customary Methods of teaching the 
 Various School Studies, in the Light of Fore- 
 going Exposition of the Essential Form of 
 Right Methods 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 method-wholes. 
 
 § 45. Proper Subdivision of Subject-matter. — Princi- 
 ples IN Accordance with which this must be 
 DONE 8S 
 
 RELATION OF SO-CALLED "METHODS" TO THE ESSENTIAL 
 
 FORMS. 
 
 § 46. Methods of Instruction may be regarded from 
 Three Standpoints : (1)lthe Learner, (2) the 
 Matter taught, and (3) the Teacher. — Forms 
 OF Thought, — the Notion, the Judgment, the 
 Syllogism, —HENCE Three Kinds of Methods: 
 Explication, Predication, Demonstration. — 
 Methods with Regard to Matter taught : Ana- 
 lytical, Synthetical; with Regard to Teacher: 
 the Monologue, the Dialogue .... 91 
 
 PAKT III. 
 
 PRACTICAL. ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 § 47. Introductory Summary 94 
 
 liANGUAGE. 
 
 §48. Oral Language-lesson for First Grade: the 
 
 Wren and the Bear 94 
 
 § 49. Oral Language-lesson for Second or Third 
 Grade: the Shipwreck (adapted from "Rob- 
 inson Crusoe") . . 99 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 § 50. Oral. Language-lesson for Third or Fourth 
 Grade: Paris and Helen (adapted from the 
 Iliad) 103 
 
 § 51. A Lesson in Grammar : What are the Essen- 
 tial Elements of a Sentence ? . • . . . 107 
 
 §52. A Lesson in Advanced Grammar: Nature and 
 
 Use of the Adjective 109 
 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 § 53. Number-lesson for the First Grade : The Num- 
 ber Three, Addition and Subtraction . . 114 
 §54. Fourth-grade Arithmetic-lesson: To multiply 
 
 A Fraction by an Integer 118 
 
 READING. 
 
 § 55. Treatment of a KEjgDiNG-LESSON in Lower and 
 
 Middle Classes 120 
 
 § 56. General Plan for Memorizing in the Lower 
 
 Classes 121 
 
 § 57. A Model Exercise. — Excelsior 122 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 § 58. Geography founded on Actual Observation 
 
 BY THE Children ....... 126 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 § 59, Course of an Oral History-lesson in Middle 
 
 and Lower Classes 132 
 
THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 PART I. 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS. 
 
 CHAPTEE, I. 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL NOTION. 
 
 § 1. All mental activity is based upon the results of 
 sense-perception, with which it starts. It is inconceivable 
 that a living being having no use of the senses could have 
 any mental life. It is true, indeed, that mental life pre- 
 supposes more than a mere use of the senses, but it presup- 
 poses this also. This element can be omitted from the 
 notion of intellectual activity no more than a necessary 
 element of any other notion can be omitted without de- 
 stroying the notion. Thus, who could think a triangle 
 with one side left out, or a straight line with a curve in it, 
 or a pair of scissors with one blade missing, or a train of 
 cars with no rear car? Since, then, all mental activity 
 presupposes and starts with knowledge gained through the 
 senses, it is obvious that we should understand the nature 
 of this knowledge, in order to gain any rational insight into 
 the principles of right methods. 
 
 The senses furnish us that ivhich we call the individual 
 
 13 
 
' 14 . '•/' • i'.fe^' ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 ' iiptt<k^^' * JjppJ^ijig a]Di^ut my study table, I perceive, through 
 the sense of sight, an inkstand, a pen, a book, a letter. 
 Each of these is, like every other single thing, an individual 
 object. The image, or idea, which my sense of sight gives me 
 of each of these individual objects is appropriately called an 
 individual notion. (Many other names besides notion are 
 in common use for the same thing. Thus, one often hears 
 the terms, perceptio7i, percept, idea, mental picture or image, 
 ijidividual concept, etc.) In the same manner, by passing 
 through a room in the dark, one may get individual notions 
 of a rocking-chair, a table, a hanging lamp, through the 
 sense of touch alone. Through the sense of hearing, we 
 get individual notions of a piece of music, the song of a 
 bird, the whistle of a boy, the ringing of a bell. Each of 
 the senses may, alone, give an individual notion of some 
 one thing. Generally, however, they work together, each 
 supporting and re-enforcing the others, and helping to give 
 a more complete notion of the thing under consideration. 
 A boy, for instance, gets a notion of the object apple by 
 seeing it; yet he gets a more complete and satisfactory 
 notion of it by touching it, smelling it, tasting it. But the 
 whole complex of his sensations of the apple goes to .make 
 up what we have called his individual notion of it. 
 
 A moment's reflection shows that this individual notion, 
 though it is of a single thing, is in itself very complex. 
 Think of the boy's apple : there are the form and color, 
 which appeal to the eye ; the qualities of solidity and 
 smoothness, which appeal to the touch ; the fragrant quali- 
 ties, which appeal to the smell ; and those other properties 
 which appeal to the taste. Just so, every individual notion 
 is a complex, or synthesis, of many elements. But all 
 knowledge, and hence all education, begins with these com- 
 plex individual notions. One should therefore think twice 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL NOTION. 15 
 
 before trying to apply such educational maxims as, Proceed 
 from the simple to the complex. From the foregoing, it is 
 easy to see that this maxim is not universal in its applica- 
 tion., 
 
 § 2. But^ for the science of methods, we must extend our 
 idea of the individual notion beyond mere perceptions of objects 
 (fained through the senses. 
 
 As ordinarily understood, an individual notion is the com- 
 plex of all the sensations which we have of a thing. It is, 
 therefore, not an immediately given individual concept, but 
 it presupposes sensations, reproductions, time and space 
 forms, also the notion of our own body, and its distinction 
 from the rest of the external world. Sensations, however, 
 are nothing to mind until jjerceived. Perception is then 
 the first form of knowledge. It is nothing more than the 
 synthesis of the nerve excitations with the soul states 
 produced by them. The perception (Anschauung) is the 
 psychical image of the single thing, the individual exist- 
 ence. The internally or externally observed bird, " robin," 
 is a definite individual ; determinate as to color, size, form, 
 voice, and all that observation furnishes regarding him. The 
 notion of a species or genus (general notion) cannot be ob- 
 served. (Compare Drbal, "Empirische Psychologic," p. 161.) 
 This notion of the perception of individual objects in space 
 through the senses has been extended very generally by 
 German authors, to an inner perception (innere Anschauung) 
 of individual notions not given by the senses. For instance, 
 in grammar, the relation of one word to another may be 
 perceived even though the outward form gives no hint of 
 the relation ; as, a noun in the nominative or objective case. 
 As can readily be seen, this extension is very convenient 
 for pedagogy, since it helps to emphasize the fact that we 
 reach general laws only through individual facts. 
 
16 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 Pfisterer (" Padagogische Psychologie," p. 229) remarks : 
 "We distinguish commonly, and not without reason, a 
 double observation (Anschauung), an outer and an inner. 
 The outer observation is that mediated through the senses ; 
 the inner is quite as much an observation by means oi the 
 inner senses as it is an observation of what goes on within. 
 An observation by means of the inner senses is neces- 
 sary, because not only all processes of the inner world, 
 but also many phenomena and activities of the outer world, 
 especially all that pertain to historical and social life, 
 cannot at all or but partially and with great effort be 
 brought under the observation of the senses. What re- 
 mains but to bring them under inne?^ spiritual observa- 
 tion, or to lead them before the inner senses (powers of 
 presentation and imagination) by vivid description or 
 narration ? By means of these, the child's mind can and 
 should get a more or less clear image of a thing or activity, 
 and mentally ' see ' and enjoy it, without ever having per- 
 ceived it in this form by the senses." 
 
 If I take two pieces of paper of the same shape and size, 
 fold each of them into eight equal parts, and tear off five 
 parts from each paper, I shall find by counting that I have 
 six parts left. By means of this concrete illustration, I 
 have received an individual notion of the fact, that | x 2 = f . 
 In this case, my notion is not of an object, but of certain 
 numerical relations ; yet it is a notion of an individual case 
 of these relations, and is, hence, just as truly a concrete or 
 individual notion as that gained from seeing, touching, 
 smelling, and tasting the apple. 
 
 If I take a vessel with a spout, fill it full of water, place 
 a floating body upon the surface of the water, and then 
 compare the weight of the displaced water with the 
 weight of the floating body, I shall get an individual 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL NOTION, 17 
 
 notion, or what is the same thing, a concrete illustration 
 of the fact that a floating body displaces its own weight of 
 water. 
 
 What is true of the physical world and its relations is 
 equally true of the spiritual world and its relations. In 
 the pages of history we get concrete or individual notions, 
 of bravery, of vigilance, of celerity, of the nobility of 
 patriotism, of the vanity and wickedness of ambition, of 
 the contemptibleness of cowardice, indecision, or treason. 
 A moral truth, though it cannot be presented to the senses, 
 may be individualized, or made concrete, by concrete illus- 
 tration; as, through the story of George Washington and 
 his hatchet. Every fable is the concrete illustration of 
 some moral or intellectual truth, and thus gives an individual 
 notion of this truth. In the same way moral lessons are 
 individualized throughout our history and in most of our 
 imaginative stories. 
 
 The main point in this whole matter is that our knoivledge 
 starts with the individual notion, whether it is of the things 
 of sense, of their relations, or of the concrete embodiment 
 of any purely intellectual or moral truth. In any case, and 
 in all cases, real knowledge must start with and be based 
 upon the concrete, individual notion.^ 
 
 1 Pestalozzi. — Instruction must not only be based upon sense percep- 
 tion, but also upon inner or intellectual perception. 
 
 It is also very important for us to emphasize for instruction that power 
 of silent receptivity , which allows the matter of instruction to penetrate 
 the depths of the soul, to grow and ripen, even without the illumination 
 of reflection. 
 
 Herbart (vol. i. p. 120, edition by O. Willman). — The marrow of educa- 
 tion is itself destroyed, if the first fresh presentations become old without 
 being perceived ; if lifeless repetitions are tediously extended, where in- 
 terest should eagerly seize ; if the forms of speech, in which wealth of 
 conviction even best loves to express itself, are bereft of their spirit, and 
 laid away as corpses in the caverns of memory. 
 
18 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 THE GENERAL NOTION. 
 § 3. Language reflects thought as the mirror reflects the 
 image of him who stands before it. For this reason, a 
 study of language is often the most direct road to an under- 
 standing of the various elements of thought. We will, 
 therefore, approach the next stage of our topic by calling 
 to mind some of the implications of language. We say 
 that a noun is the name of an object, but this object must 
 primarily be an object of thought, for names do not inhere 
 in things ; they are only means by which one mind is able 
 to "convey" its own ideas to another mind. But actual 
 things of sense correspond to ideas gained through a normal 
 use of the senses, hence, secondarily and mediately the 
 naun is the name of the object itself, and no confusion 
 need arise from thinking of the noun as a symbol of an 
 actual physical thing in space or of an idea of the mind.^ 
 A noun may be considered in two ways : — 
 
 (1) As to the quantity or number of that to which it 
 applies, called the exte7it of the noun (or notion, which the 
 noun represents) ; and 
 
 (2) As to the qualities or attributes which belong to 
 that to which the noun applies, called the content of the 
 noun (or notion, which the noun represents). 
 
 The extent may evidently include oiie, or some, or all. In 
 the sentence, Socrates identifies virtue with wisdom, only 
 one person is meant by the word, Socrates ; hence this word 
 represents an individual notion. But in the sentence, Man 
 is mortal, it is clear that the extent of the noun is not 
 individual but general, — that all men are included by the 
 word man. The same thing is true of the words virtue and 
 wisdom in the preceding sentence, for these are general 
 
 1 Compare Everett, The Science of Thought, p. 67. 
 
THE GENERAL NOTION, 19 
 
 terms. They do not refer to particular virtues or wisdoms. 
 With regard to extent, they differ from man and similar 
 words in not being numerically considered. General names, 
 like ma/i, virtue^ wisdom, are called common nouns. They 
 can apply to individual objects, or to limited numbers or 
 quantities, only through limitation by adjectives. Thus, 
 this man, tall oaks, much wisdom. 
 
 Common nouns, therefore, being general names, always 
 express general notions. 
 
 When unlimited by adjectives, the common noun (hence 
 the general notion which it represents) always embraces 
 the whole extent of that to which the noun refers. 
 
 § 4. But, as we have seen, the noun (hence the notion) 
 has also content, which will vary as the extent is expanded 
 or contracted. 
 
 One might think of a rose as the synthesis of its various 
 attributes of form, color, odor, etc. In any individual rose 
 these attributes would be numerous and perfectly definite. 
 The color, for instance, would be white or red ; but in the 
 general notion rose, particular attributes can no longer be 
 assigned, for only those attributes could belong to rose in 
 general which are common to all roses. Nouns may then 
 be limited by reference to their content. Adjectives which 
 modify in this way are called qualifying adjectives, be- 
 cause they apply to the attributes or qualities belonging to 
 that which the noun represents ; for instance. Black sheep 
 are rare. Here the general class sheep is restricted or 
 limited in extent by the qualifying adjective black. In 
 the sentence. The woolly sheep is a timid animal, the word 
 woolly does not limit the extent of the notion, for this 
 attribute is common to all sheep, unless, perchance, the 
 professor of the university of Lagado was successful, who 
 spent many years in trying to raise sheep without wool. 
 
20 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 From what has been said, it may be seen that when the 
 extent of a notion is smallest (one), its content is greatest ; 
 and that when its extent is greatest (all of its class or kind), 
 the content is least ; in general, the greater the extent, the 
 smaller the content, and vice versa. Thns, the term animal 
 embraces a far greater nnmber of individuals than the term 
 quadruped, but at the same time there are fewer character- 
 istics which are common to all animals than are common to 
 all quadrupeds. The term cat is less than quadruped in 
 extent^ but it is richer in content. The same can be seen in 
 the general terms tree, forest-tree, oak, white-oak. Here the 
 extent constantly narrows, but the content, i.e., the number 
 of common characteristics, constantly increases. 
 
 But, though when logically considered, extent and content 
 of notions are related as indicated, it does not follow that 
 knowledge of content grows meager as knowledge of extent 
 enlarges. Were this true, we should have to say that the 
 more the zoologist extends his classes, the less he would 
 know about them. 
 
 All effective learning is occupied quite as much with 
 enriching content as with widening extent. It is evident, 
 therefore, that knowledge should never be divorced from 
 the individual thing, however broad its generalization may 
 become. 
 
 Not only is the idea of the general notion familiar in 
 grammar, but it manifests itself in a rudimentary stage in 
 early childhood. How a child forms such an idea may be 
 seen from an illustration. Suppose he has observed a 
 number of dogs of various breeds, but has seen no one of 
 them more than once. If there were, say, ten of them in 
 all, the external common characteristics of all have been 
 observable ten times, whereas the individual characteristics 
 of each dog have appeared but once. Thus, the fact that 
 
THE GENERAL NOTION. 21 
 
 all dogs have ears has been manifested ten times, though 
 the characteristic of cropped ears, or of silky ears, may 
 have occurred but once. So of the muzzle, the tail, the 
 legs, etc. 
 
 Savages, as Herbert Spencer shows, form general notions, 
 but naturally of a much more elementary character than is 
 the case with civilized races. Indeed, the history of the 
 language seems to show that vague general terms preceded 
 specific individual ones. As soon as the child can say caij 
 dog, horse, intelligently, he has passed beyond the individual 
 object ; his knowledge has attained to a certain degree of 
 universality. As we shall see hereafter, he can truly know 
 an individual object only when he can subsume it under a 
 general notion. 
 
 § 5. A general notion is unlike the individual, also, in 
 that it cannot be imaged or pictured to the mind. Every 
 image in the mind must be individual, and in being indi- 
 vidual it ceases to be general. I can imagine or picture 
 any individual tree, even one which I have never seen, but 
 it remains individual. It is this tree ; viz., the one I am 
 picturing to myself. It has definite form, color, size ; its 
 leaves are of a certain pattern, its bark has a peculiar forma- 
 tion. The general notion, or conception, tree, however, 
 cannot possess these individual peculiarities, since it must 
 include all trees. My general notion tree is rather a general 
 rule or scheme for the formation of any individual image 
 of a tree. If one thinks of such notions as are expressed 
 by the abstract noun, — such as redness, heat, goodness, — it 
 is plain that any individual notion of one of these qualities 
 would imply a definite degree^ but the general notion would 
 include all degrees. For example, it would be impossible 
 to find a point registered on a thermometer, which alone 
 indicates heat. The same is true to a greater extent with 
 
212 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 the more abstract terms fo7xe, matter, quality, being. These 
 must in truth always be thought ; they cannot be perceived 
 individually. (Compare Dr. W. T. Harris, " Illinois School 
 Journal," July, 1888.) The general notion is therefore a 
 general scheme, or rule, for the formation of individual 
 notions, and is usually expressed in a definition. It is a 
 product of thought, and has no external, objective existence 
 apart from individual objects. It is vain to seek the univer- 
 sal horse, except so far as it is embodied in every horse. 
 But the general notion has a truth and reality in these 
 objects, for it finds a concrete embodiment of its character- 
 istics in them. 
 
 The general notion, in its various stages of extent and 
 content, is the necessary result of perception a7id reflection. 
 It is that characteristic of mind that separates human in- 
 telligence from the intelligence of the brute, if we may 
 judge from the fact that animals do not use language, and 
 hence do not appear to have any symbols for generalization. 
 A dog, for instance, has the individual notions, cow, rabbit ; 
 nor does he ever mistake the one for the other, though these 
 notions, like the first conceptions of the child, are vague 
 and indistinct. But his intelligence appears to stop at this 
 stage. Not so with man. Man's intelligence sees the 
 general in the particular ; it discerns the common character- 
 istics necessary to the notion of each individual, and by 
 reflection forms a general conception. This fact, as we 
 shall see, has great significance in education, and must 
 never be forgotten. 
 
 § 6. Just as we found it expedient to enlarge our idea 
 of the individual notion beyond the ordinary notions gained 
 through the senses, so, likewise, shall we find it advanta- 
 geous to extend our idea of general notions beyond those 
 gained from the comparison of similar objects of sense. 
 
TEE GENERAL NOTION. 23 
 
 Thus, in the multiplication of a fraction by an integer, we 
 may pass by reflection or insight from the concrete individ- 
 ual notion of the numerical relations of objects to the 
 general truth that a fraction is multiplied by multiplying 
 its numerator, because the mind perceives the universality 
 of a mathematical process whenever it clearly understands 
 the conditions. From the individual example of the amount 
 of displacement by a floating body, we may easily pass to 
 the general notion that any floating body displaces its own 
 weight of the liquid in which it floats. From the individual 
 case of the merit of telling the truth, in the case of George 
 Washington, we may pass by reflection to the general fact 
 that truthfulness is right, and that lying is wrong. Noti- 
 cing the characteristics of several individual circles, we soon 
 find those which are common ; viz., plane surface, curved 
 boundary, and equidistance of all points on the circumfer- 
 ence from a point within the circle. From these we con- 
 struct our general notion of the circle, which in this case 
 takes the form of a definition. 
 
 The general notion, therefore) thus extended and un- 
 derstood, embraces not only notions of material objects, 
 their qualities and relations, but definitions, as in mathe- 
 matics and natural science ; laws, as the laws of gravitation, 
 cohesion, repulsion, etc. ; principles, as of economic or politi- 
 cal life, or of warfare, etc. ; moral maxims, as, e.g., the cate- 
 gorical imperative, — So act that through your own will the 
 rules of your conduct might become universal laws. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 APPERCEPTION, OR THE ASSIMILATION OF KNOWLEDGE. A NEW 
 STANDPOINT IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW. 
 
 § 7. Roughly speaking, apperception is to the mind what 
 the process of digestion and assimilation of food is to the 
 body. Suitable food contains the elements needed for the 
 nourishment of all parts of the body, such as bone, mus- 
 cle, fat, nerves, teeth, nails, hair, etc., while the assimila- 
 tive process brings each food element into right relations 
 with the part of the physical organism for which it is 
 appropriate. Indigestible matter is either indifferent or 
 harmful to the system. Somewhat analogous to this physi- 
 cal process is the mental one we call apperception. The 
 senses present to us what may be termed the raw material 
 of knowledge. It is upon this material that the mind 
 exerts its assimilative function. It naturally relates each 
 new element of knowledge, as it is presented, to its appro- 
 priate place in the knowledge organism^ thereby giving 
 significance to the new experience. But there is this wide 
 difference between the physical and the mental assimila- 
 tion, — digestion is mechanical and unconscious, whereas 
 apperception is conscious and necessarily incomplete. A 
 good digestive system will utilize the nutriment in almost 
 any kind of food, but the mind of the child has only the 
 child's apprehension for the experience furnished by its 
 environment. In a museum, for instance, an image which 
 may mean to the child merely an ugly doll, may mean to 
 
 24 
 
APPERCEPTION. 25 
 
 the adult a system of idolatry, a stage of civilization for 
 a people. The child relates the new object to the kindred 
 facts of his own experience : he can do no more ; whereas 
 the man, with vastly wider knowledge and mental power, 
 extends the relations to a whole system of facts. Apper- 
 ception is, then, in general, the process of giving signifi- 
 cance to facts by relating them to our more firmly estab- 
 lished knowledge. To illustrate further, let us construct a 
 figure of three lines, one straight and perpendicular, one 
 broken and oblique, and one curved, thus : — 
 
 Sight gives us the figure as it stands, but the ap- 
 prehension that we get at first view is unsatisfac- 
 tory. We have perhaps had experience enough r 
 with lines to enable us to relate each one to its 
 appropriate class, but we see no idea, no purpose in the 
 whole. Remembering, now, however, that a painter once 
 boasted that he could, by means of three lines, represent 
 a soldier and his dog entering an inn, we can at once as- 
 sociate the hitherto meaningless marks with a system of 
 ideas, and when this is done, the process of apperception 
 may be said to be complete. 
 
 There are a number of psychological methods of viewing 
 the various problems arising in education. Some of these 
 have in the past served a useful purpose in enabling men 
 to come to rational conclusions on educational questions ; 
 some are still comparatively new. Among the latter the 
 most prominent are two branches of empirical psychology — 
 that known as physiological psychology, and that in which 
 the doctrine of apperception is an important factor. Phys- 
 iolQgical psychology studies mental acts by observing and 
 measuring their mechanical occasion and results, accord- 
 ing to the methods of physical science. It has undoubted 
 value for all that class of problems in which bodily health 
 
26 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD, 
 
 and well-being are important factors. In what we may 
 term apperceptional psychology, we attack the educational 
 problems pertaining to the acquisition of knowledge and 
 the formation of character in another way. We recognize 
 the fact that each advance in knowledge is very largely 
 determined in rate, kind, and amount by the results that 
 our past experiences have left upon our minds. In other 
 words, the present make-up of our minds in knowledge, 
 habits of thought, interests, purposes, etc., determines to 
 very large extent what interpretation we shall put upon 
 a given element of knowledge when presented to us by a 
 teacher, or by the ordinary experience of life. If, then, 
 the past experience of the child in and out of school is so 
 potent in determining his progress, it seems evident that his 
 teacher should go to work consciously to do two things : first, 
 in his teaching, to utilize in the best possible way the past 
 experience of the child ; and, second, to pave the way for 
 future progress by the best possible presentation of the studies 
 that are to make up the chief part of the pupil's knowledge. 
 The value to the teacher of this way of approaching the 
 educational problems of instruction may, perhaps, be more 
 clearly seen by contrasting it with other methods of study- 
 ing psychology. We have, for instance, a method called 
 rational psychology. In this method of study it makes no 
 difference to us what the experience of the individual may 
 have been. The mind of a Chinaman or an Esquimau 
 will do just as well as that of a college professor or that of 
 a farmer. Our constant inquiry is. What constitutes a 
 mind ? Evidently something, else a camera could have 
 experiences as well as a man. In rational psychology we 
 look for what must be found in every mind — its laws of 
 action, its constituting principles. All that the teacher 
 can do is to recognize these facts, and govern himself 
 
APPERCEPTION. 27 
 
 accordingly. He cannot change one of them. From the 
 apperceptive point of view, however, we are chiefly con- 
 cerned, not with the unchangeable laws of mental action, 
 but with the constantly changing content of mind, over 
 which the teacher has some control, since he can utilize 
 and create it. 
 
 There is another way of looking at mental life, in which 
 the various modes of activity are classified under the name 
 of faculties. We have accordingly the faculties of mem- 
 ory, perception, imagination, reason, will, and the like, 
 each being regarded as an organ of the mind, and needing 
 a special training. Thus, to train the memory is to exer- 
 cise it by requiring the child to commit large amounts of 
 useful knowledge. But since knowledge becomes manage- 
 able by condensation into rules, principles, and abstract 
 statements, the danger is that the pupils will be called 
 upon to memorize large amounts of unassimilated matter, 
 thus bringing about a sort of paralysis of the thinking 
 power, as we see in Chinese education. Similar danger 
 attends all attempts to train other faculties in the same 
 manner. Reason is not necessarily developed by the repe- 
 tition of formulas, nor is will made stronger by the repetition 
 of aphorisms. The difficulty with this method of looking 
 at the mind is that everything is external. The teacher 
 sets himself over against a being of supposed complicated 
 organism, and attempts in a purely external manner to 
 train the organs by devising a special exercise for each. 
 When we recognize the process of apperception, however, 
 then the external standpoint gives place to an internal one. 
 the teacher regulating the amount and method of his in- 
 struction by the psychical needs of the child, which are 
 determined largely by his knowledge and his interests. 
 
 Just as Copernicus brought simplicity and order into 
 
28 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 astronomy by discovering the true center of the solar sys- 
 tem, so we shall bring simplicity and order into our instruc- 
 tion when we recognize the true center of the educational 
 system — the apperceptive power of the child. 
 
 § 8. We may still further understand the significance of 
 the apperceptive process by seeing how it is implied, even 
 in our most familiar mental acts. 
 
 (1) The value of sense-perception as a starting-point in 
 education has been justly extolled, yet it needs a deeper 
 grounding than the current conception of its function. A 
 superficial view regards sense-training mostly in its mechan- 
 ical aspects. Not a few people regard savages as having 
 better eyesight and hearing than civilized men. Savages 
 do, indeed, notice many things that educated men do not, 
 but this is due to mind-training rather than to any supe- 
 riority of the sense organs. 
 
 It is not unnatural that we should think of the Ameri- 
 can Indian, trailing his foe through the trackless forest by 
 obscure signs, as having better eyesight than his white 
 companion, who cannot do such things. Yet, if the 
 Indian should look through a microscope, or listen to 
 a modern orchestra, he would be as blind and deaf to 
 niceties as the dweller of the city is in the forest. The 
 difference between the two men is mental, rather than 
 physical. Their minds have been trained to attend to 
 quite different elements of the retinal pictures ; their ap- 
 perception is the real point of difference. A turned leaf, a 
 broken twig, which a white man might not look for or 
 notice, becomes to the Indian a sign of a hidden or fleeing 
 enemy. The retina of the white man's eye would record 
 these things, but they would have no significance to him ; 
 but to the Indian they would mean much, for his training 
 has been such as to make his existence, or at least the 
 
APPERCEPTION. 29 
 
 satisfaction of his passions, depend upon noticing and 
 reading them aright. Another evidence that the retinal 
 picture is substantially the same in all healthy eyes, is 
 the fact that for defective vision we always go to the 
 oculist, never to the teacher. The image on the retina 
 depends, indeed, not on the laws of pedagogics, but on 
 those of physics. 
 
 Whenever the mind stands face to face with a new ex- 
 perience whose significance is not grasped, it is in the state 
 we call wonder. This is truly, as Plato says, the begin- 
 ning of knowledge, the most primary incentive to learn ; 
 but if "wonder does not give place to apprehension, if 
 apperception does not complete its work, the stimulus of 
 wonder will soon fade into the indifference of ignorance. 
 Take any child for the first time through a museum in 
 silence, and most things will be as surely locked from him 
 as if he stood outside of bolted doors. Who, indeed, but 
 an archaeologist c;^n read a tithe of what is implied in a 
 cabinet of Assyrian relics ? Truly to appreciate the signifi- 
 cance even of an Assyrian brick and its hieroglyphics is 
 to understand an ancient civilization, so different from our 
 own that only the profoundest study of years enables us 
 even dimly to apprehend it. Reversing the illustration, sup- 
 pose, for instance, that an electric current were now able to 
 start the full tide of life in the mummy of Rameses II., 
 and that he could be set down in the midst of an American 
 city. What a bewildering maze of sights and sounds 
 would crowd upon his senses ! What to him would be the 
 myriad applications of steam and electricity, the occupa- 
 tions, sentiments, and pursuits of men ? Yet if he could 
 be born again, and live for a few years under American 
 conditions, everything would seem as natural as if it had 
 never been otherwise. 
 
30 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, that it depends upon the 
 teacher whether the principle of sense-perception, so firmly 
 urged by Comenius, Rousseau, and Pestalozzi, shall be a 
 fruitful or a barren one. It is quite possible that having 
 eyes we see not, and having ears we hear not. Object 
 lessons may degenerate into mere staring, or they may be 
 made the greatest incentives to understanding and knowl- 
 edge. The blossom of wonder must become the fruit of 
 understanding, perception must culminate in apperception, 
 or the senses will fail to do their part in the work of 
 education. 
 
 (2) Just as the net result of sense-perception in the 
 child is limited by the interpreting power of his present 
 acquisitions, so his imagination, usually thought to be the 
 freest, most spontaneous expression of his being, is like- 
 wise conditioned by the range of his knowledge. In our 
 instruction we call upon the imagination chiefly to do three 
 classes of things : (1) to enlarge and (2) lio diminish pres- 
 ent ideas or systems of ideas without greatly changing the 
 relative proportion of parts, and (3) to construct new 
 creations from old elements by changing relations, and 
 magnifying or diminishing parts. When Gulliver dwelt 
 among the Brobdignags everything was upon an enlarged 
 scale. A man was as tall as a church steeple, a rat as 
 large as a bear, and everything else in proportion. When 
 he went among the Lilliputians he found everything on a 
 greatly diminished scale. A barrel of water was no more 
 than a thimble-full, while Gulliver could step from one 
 street to another over the tops of the houses. These two 
 narratives are extended illustrations of magnified or dimin- 
 ished imaginative reproductions. The constructive imagi- 
 nation has a vast range, from grotesque forms, like satyrs, 
 sphinxes, and dragons, to the noblest productions of in- 
 
APPERCEPTION. 31 
 
 vention and art. But everywhere and always the mind 
 can use no elements in these constructions not already at 
 hand as a result of former experience. The teacher, care- 
 less of the principle of apperception, unhesitatingly makes 
 drafts that the childish imagination cannot honor. With- 
 out ever giving him the elements of geographical knowl- 
 edge through sense-perception, as, for instance, ideas of a 
 lake, a river, a cape, a promontory or bay, a mountain, hill, 
 valley or desert, swamp or plateau, the teacher asks the 
 pupil to follow him or the book in building up in his 
 imagination ideas of the most complicated geographical 
 structures. It is needless to say that the pupil's efforts to 
 do so are foredoomed to grotesqua inadequacy. Similarly 
 in history, with his stock of interpreting ideas drawn from 
 the sorriest country or village life, the pupil is often ex- 
 pected to reconstruct through his imagination the most 
 imposing scenes of the world's history. Yet in teaching 
 geography and history, if the teacher will consciously go 
 to work to enrich and arrange the interpreting ideas of 
 the children, these subjects will enrich and delight the 
 mind through an exercise of the imagination in accordance 
 with the laws of apperception. 
 
 (3) Not only is an observance of the rules of appercep- 
 tion of prime importance in sense-perception and imagina- 
 tion, but such observance is indispensable in securing and 
 holding the pupil's interest in that which must constitute 
 the matter of his education. It is not uncommon for us 
 to strive to create interest in study by appealing to emu- 
 lation, to ambition, to love of praise, approval of others, 
 duty, etc., or by indulging in spectacular display in 
 methods. These and similar devices may enable us to 
 develop a momentary interest, in duration much like the 
 anger of Brutus, who says, — 
 
32 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD, 
 
 *' O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, 
 That carries anger as the flint bears fire; 
 Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, 
 And straight is cold again." 
 
 However valuable these transient flashes of interest may 
 be in arousing the mind to activity, certainly the ideal school 
 interest is not reached until the pupil becomes progressively 
 interested in the subject-matter of his education. 
 
 These studies are of the greatest value to the child, 
 since they reveal to him what the race has thought and 
 done and felt, both in social and material realms. In them 
 he may see his highest destiny ; through them he may 
 realize it. Now, by following the guide of apperception 
 we can make the child progressively conscious of the value 
 of these studies to the development of his own life, and 
 thus awaken a permanent and growing interest in school 
 work. This direct vital interest in the subject-matter of 
 education is so important, because the interests that touch 
 our souls are the seeds from which the motives of our 
 actions spring. If my interests are in what is low or use- 
 less or selfish, my character is likely to receive its stamp 
 from a distorted die ; but if natural inclinations, environ- 
 ment, and, most of all, education, can generate in me a 
 permanent interest in what is useful and good, my life is 
 likely to be one of sweetness and light, rather than one of 
 bitterness and d arkness. 
 
 The first interests of the child arise from wonder, when 
 brought face to face with unknown facts of the material 
 world ; hence they are concrete and objective. What is 
 often seen, or is devoid of significance, or is exhausted in 
 meaning, soon ceases to attract. Children soon weary of 
 perfected toys, or those incapable of new combinations, be- 
 cause the apperceptive laws of mental life show that only 
 
APPERCEPTION, 83 
 
 those objects interest which reveal themselves perpetually 
 in new relations of deepening significance. We come 
 again to the fact that sense-training must merge at once 
 into mind-training ; that unless object lessons are viewed 
 merely as starting-points for an internal, spiritual interest, 
 they become a vain thing, useless alike for instruction and 
 amusement. 
 
 It is the despair of mothers that the child at one stage 
 of his existence seems little besides an animated interroga- 
 tion point. Not a new fact comes under his observation 
 without the question, Why ? This is his demand for the 
 reason of things. It is a fact full of significance to the 
 teacher, for it shows that the thought or speculative interest 
 is one of the most fundamental impulses of the mind. The 
 teacher who does not consciously or unconsciously observe 
 the laws of apperception, soon quenches this primeval 
 flame, and introduces the mind to that weary round of unin- 
 teresting, formal teaching that by courtesy so often goes by 
 the name of education. Shall we not keep alive this divine 
 spark of intelligence, this natural impulse to understand, 
 this native potentiality of the mind which needs but the 
 skill of the true teacher to make it develop into actuality ? 
 
 A proper mastery of educational psychology enables the 
 teacher to discover and develop every natural interest of 
 the mind; the aesthetic and ethical, as well as the intellect- 
 ual and objective. It teaches him how to make all knowl- 
 edge interesting, by showing him how to make it significant 
 in the eyes of the child. 
 
 SPECIFIC INVESTIGATION. 
 
 What is Apperception ? 
 § 9. The term Apperception has been a familiar one in 
 philosophy for two hundred and fifty years. In recent 
 
34 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 times it has been adopted as a part of the language of 
 psychology. The following exposition is intended to pre- 
 sent in brief form the substantial results of the investiga- 
 tions of prominent psychologists in this field.^ 
 
 (1) The mind must possess an. original, inherent jjower 
 of reacting against the physical- stimulus that comes to it 
 through the medium of the senses, else we should never 
 have any experience at all. 
 
 The result of this reaction is, ultimately, the production 
 of ideas. Let us call this original reacting power the will ; 
 for it is the function of the will to manifest its activity in 
 the realm of ideas, the outwardly directed physical effort 
 being an accompanying index. Hence we may say that, in 
 order that knowledge shall get a start, the self, in conform- 
 ity to the will, becomes a necessary element in every sen- 
 sation, so that if asked. What is a sensation apart from all 
 apperception ? we should be compelled to answer, Nothing 
 at all for consciousness, since without apperception we 
 should never have a sensation. This first volitional 
 response of the mind to outward physical stimuli coming 
 through the senses, and resulting in sensations and ideas, 
 is the priTnary or initial form of apperception. It is such 
 because it involves no previous knowledge. That phase 
 of apperception most iinportant in education, however, in- 
 volves knowledge, and may, therefore, be termed the cog- 
 nitive apperception. 
 
 (2) To have sensations and ideas, however, is to have 
 
 1 For a sketch of the history of the use of the word see the concluding 
 chapter of Lange's "Apperception," D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. The 
 present exposition is in the spirit of Wundt's contributions to the sub- 
 ject, he having fairly incorporated all the essential points of other sys- 
 tems of thought, of which that of Herbart is the most noteworthy. 
 But though conforming essentially to "Wundt's theory, the present dis- 
 cussion has some important deviations from that author. 
 
APPERCEPTION. 35 
 
 what we call consciousness. This raay be viewed in two 
 ways. Comparing it figuratively with the image formed 
 upon the retina of the eye in vision, we may distinguish, 
 first, the whole field of illumination, and, second, the cen- 
 tral focus of light, from which the illumination rapidly 
 diminishes to the periphery of the image. If we call all 
 activity within the field of consciousness perceptio7i, then 
 the activity within the focus of consciousness, or the point 
 of greatest clearness, may be distinguished by the name 
 apperception. 
 
 (3) The elements of mental life, as they are presented 
 by the senses, have a varying value in consciousness, those 
 of most subjective worth coming into the focus, and 
 others remaining in outlying portions of the field. The 
 primal activity of the mind in responding to these stimuli 
 has been called the will, so that the ideas that get into the 
 focus of consciousness must have the greatest momentary 
 worth to the will. But that which has value in relation to 
 the will is a motive, so that we may speak of the soliciting 
 power that an idea has for the will as its motive value. 
 This changes from moment to moment and from stage to 
 stage in the development of the mind. What is a strong 
 motive to us at one time or in one condition ceases to be 
 such at another time, or when the state of the mind has 
 changed. 
 
 (4) It is because the spontaneous activity of the mind 
 in its response to sense stimuli is conceived as will, that it 
 is proper to regard the worth that each idea has for the 
 mind as a Tnotive value. This value is to be expressed in 
 terms of feeling, whether having its origin in the body or 
 in the contemplation of intellectual or moral truths. To 
 have the later motive value arising from perceived knowl- 
 edge relations, an idea must enter the field of conscious- 
 
36 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 iiess, when it may be quickly elevated into the focus, 
 provided it possesses enough motive value. This will de- 
 pend, not so much upon its actual value considered in 
 itself, as upon the subjective worth it has for a mind that 
 is constantly changing its tone in obedience to altering con- 
 tent of consciousness. We may say, in general, that the 
 motive value of an idea at any given time will depend 
 upon the worth the idea appears to have for the well-being 
 of the self. It may range from the satisfaction of the 
 simplest physical want arising from the bodily organism, 
 up to the realization of the impulses of the self in the 
 loftiest realms of intellectual and moral life. 
 
 (5) Though the mind through its will activity creates 
 ideas, it does so in obedience to stimuli coming from 
 sources independent of itself. On this account the original 
 content of mental life depends in large degree upon causes 
 over which the mind has no control, but it may be said 
 that all ideas have been more or less perfectly apperceived 
 before they are recognized as old and familiar. Eecurring 
 ideas that have been apperceived are recognized as such, 
 and no longer command the attention necessary to bring 
 them to the focus of consciousness, unless they possess a 
 motive value sufficient to call for a more complete apper- 
 ception. They, it may be said, usually constitute the 
 main body of ideas in the field of consciousness — they are 
 perceptions which may, however, be called into the focus 
 at any moment. 
 
 (6) New ideas entering consciousness, whether occa- 
 sioned by physical or psychical processes, usually possess a 
 sufficient motive value to raise them into the apperceiving 
 center. They can obtain significance, however, only when 
 they are consciously related to other ideas. In order to 
 establish these relations, the mind must hold in the 
 
A PPER CEP TION. 37 
 
 focus of its attention, not only the newly entering idea, 
 but also those to which it is to be related. The impossi- 
 bility of holding one of two related ideas in the focus of con- 
 sciousness, and keeping the other in the background at the 
 moment of establishing the relation, seems to substantiate 
 this view. We may say, therefore, that in an ordinary act 
 of apperception the mind holds under the focus of its 
 attention, not only the new notion, but also the other idea 
 to which it must be related in order to have significance. 
 
 § 10. In order that the function of the process of apper- 
 ception may be more fundamentally understood, we shall 
 need to see some of the important relations it bears to the 
 association of ideas. 
 
 (1) The nature of consciousness is such that the mind 
 tends to unite into a whole, either homogeneous or made 
 up of related parts, all that enters it at any given time. 
 Lindner formulates the following laws for this union or 
 fusion (association) of ideas. 
 
 a. Simultaneous ideas tend to fuse ; i.e., flow together 
 into a single act of cognition. (They form a complete 
 fusion if they are different pictures of the same thing, as, 
 for example, of a church, or house, or college.) 
 
 b. Simultaneous ideas of different natures fuse without 
 arrest into a total idea or complication. (Cold and white 
 fuse or unite into the idea snow, since the two ideas are of 
 different natures.) 
 
 G. Simultaneous ideas of opposed nature first arrest 
 one another (resist union), and then fuse with degrees of 
 intensity remaining from the arrest. (In the idea home 
 are many component ideas that will not fuse completely, as 
 house, parents, brother, sisters, sun^oundings, etc., yet the 
 whole forms one picture more or less definitely seen.) 
 
 Now, this primary tendency of the mind to unite or fuse 
 
38 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 all its simultaneous impressions is the most elementary 
 meaning of the association of ideas. Even here, however, 
 the process of apperception goes on, though, in distinction 
 from those phases in which the will is more energetic, we 
 call it passive apperception. The correlative of passive is 
 active apperception. 
 
 (2) In what has been called passive apperception the 
 motive value of the leading idea is single and unmistakable 
 and strong enough in its solicitation of the will to bring the 
 idea within the focus of consciousness, requiring no bal- 
 ancing of motives, or reflection upon Avhich idea shall be 
 chosen. In active apperception, however, the line of action 
 for the will in the choice of the ideas that shall be most 
 prominent in the focus is not fixed by the unmistakable 
 motive worth of one idea above another, but there is a com- 
 plexity of motive worth in different ideas that compels the 
 mind to pause, to consider, and finally to select the idea and 
 its related group that shall occupy the focus of conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 We may distinguish also simultaneous and successive 
 association of ideas. In simultaneous association the ideas 
 fuse into a total, or single complication, none of them retain- 
 ing their original individuality. (In the idea salt are fused 
 the whitish color, the hexahedral form, the peculiar taste, 
 the rough, hygroscopic feeling, the peculiar crackling when 
 pressed together, etc.) In successive association each idea, 
 though associated with others, preserves in a measure its 
 individuality, so that we have a series of ideas linked to- 
 gether as a result. 
 
 (3) It may be said in general that our ideas are synthe- 
 sized from simpler elements, some of which are bound to be 
 more powerful, or possess more motive worth to the will, 
 than others. Since the mind cannot attend to all these ele- 
 
APPERCEPTION. 39 
 
 merits at once, in passive apperception the ideas that shall 
 attract the most attention, or, in other words, that shall be 
 called into the focus, are those that bring with them the 
 strongest attraction for the will. This attraction, or mo- 
 tive worth, will depend partly upon the outside relations of 
 the things that occasioned the appearance of the ideas in 
 consciousness, and partly on the subjective state of the 
 mind. Not only does the mind arrange and relate the ele- 
 ments given to it at one time by the senses, but it may be 
 questioned whether any cognitive apperception is complete 
 without the reproduction of related ideas th^t were not in 
 consciousness at the time of the reception of the new. How 
 the new ideas are related to the old will be better under- 
 stood when we examine the process of apperception from 
 the standpoint of the judgment. 
 
 (4) As the term successive association implies, the mind 
 may make associations in which the ideas, though associ- 
 ated, maintain their individuality — they do not become 
 so completely fused as to lose their identity as separate 
 ideas. In this way the series, or chain of ideas, arises, in 
 which the members must be united in some sort of relations 
 even if merely fanciful and subjective ones. These rela- 
 tions are of necessity most clear and distinct between the 
 ideas that successively occupy the focus of consciousness. 
 Now, since these ideas are related, it would seem that any 
 given member of the series has its motive worth to the will 
 partly determined by its predecessors, and that it will have 
 an influence in determining which idea shall follow it into 
 the focus. This makes the association of ideas in the 
 series a rational process. Giving ourselves up passively to 
 the train of ideas, we see how we may arrive at the most 
 unexpected results, yet be able to perceive how the motive 
 value of one idea indicated what the next member of the 
 series should be. 
 
40 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 (5) The motive worth of an idea for the will is the feel- 
 ing united with it, so that we may consider feeling the 
 driving force for the rise and fall of ideas ; or, in other 
 words, the feelings connected with ideas determine which 
 shall occupy the focus of consciousness. Feeling, however, 
 is the most subjective phase of our mental life. Two per- 
 sons must go through substantially the same mental process 
 in the mastery of a purely intellectual problem, such, for 
 instance, as mathematics furnishes ; but their feelings, even 
 about such matters, are likely to be quite unlike. In 
 nothing are w^ so individual, so different from others, as 
 in our feelings and emotions. But since it is feeling that 
 gives the motive value to an idea, we can understand why 
 apperception has such high subjective significance. This 
 shows why the ideas awakened, for example, by a walk in 
 the forest would be so different with different people ; why 
 one would attend only to the plants, another to the animals, 
 another to the poetic ideas suggested, another to elevated 
 thoughts about the creator of all. It is here, again, that we 
 see the wonderful potency of interest in education. An in- 
 terest in a subject is only a constant set of motive values 
 for ideas, so that as soon as such a mental tendency is 
 established, countless ideas claim the apperceiving power 
 of the mind, that would otherwise pass unchallenged. 
 
 (6) In its active phases apperception is no longer guided 
 by the single motive, but is delayed on account of the 
 competing motive values of several ideas. There is delib- 
 eration, and finally choice, in accordance with temporary 
 or permanent interests. Apperception now loses the more 
 or less mechanical aspects seen in its passive manifestations, 
 so that the train of ideas is fixed more in accordance with 
 rational content, or, at any rate, by ruling interests of the 
 mind. The fleeting aspects of feeling give way to the 
 
APPERCEPTION, 41 
 
 establishment of more permanent modes of feeling, or 
 interests, thus determining still more subjectively the 
 direction that apperception shall take. 
 
 (7) It is through apperception that interpreting groups 
 or masses of ideas are formed, thus making it easy to 
 determine the significance of large numbers of facts. Our 
 knowledge becomes in this way compact and manageable. 
 On the other hand, apperception enables us also to examine 
 the members of a group, one by one. 
 
 (8) Not only can apperception be studied along the 
 lines laid down in the present section, which considers the 
 subject from the standpoint of the idea or notion as a 
 factor of mental life, but it may also be investigated from 
 the remaining topics in logic ; viz., the judgment and the 
 syllogism. The next section contains a brief analysis of 
 apperception from the standpoint of the judgment, while 
 Chapter iv. contains an examination of the topic from the 
 side of the syllogism. 
 
 § 11. It is a fact well known to psychologists that the 
 primary function of intelligence is to formulate thought in 
 the judgment. Whatever can be a matter of thought at 
 all can be, and indeed in the last analysis must be, reduced 
 to the form of the judgment. The nature of the judgment 
 is seen in its symbol, or representation, the sentence. This 
 is necessarily the junction of subject and predicate by the 
 copula, expressed, or implied in the verb. There are three 
 possible relations between subject and predicate, two of 
 which in themselves add nothing to our knowledge : — 
 
 (1) The subject may be more general than the predicate ; 
 as, An animal is a dog. (Analytical judgment.) 
 
 (2) The subject and predicate may be identical ; as, A 
 dog is a dog. (Identical judgment.) 
 
 (3) The subject may be less general than the predicate ; 
 as. Carlo is a dog. (Synthetic judgment.) 
 
42 THE, ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 The first of these forms has no value in extending our 
 knowledge when the subject is understood, since the predi- 
 cate is plainly seen to be otAj^l pai't of the subject. When 
 Hamlet wished to withhold information, he said, — 
 
 " There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 
 But he's an arrant knave.'^ 
 
 In this case the subject is a broader term than the predi- 
 cate, and already contains it by implication. There is one 
 case, however, when this form of the judgment is of value ; 
 viz., when the subject of the judgment contains more than 
 is clearly seen by the speaker. Thus in the judgment. 
 This body has weight, only one thing is asserted, but exten- 
 sion, impenetrability, origin, purp)ose, etc., are all involved 
 in the subject body. The pedagogical significance of this 
 fact will be dwelt upon l^ater. 
 
 The second, or identical, form of the judgment is useless 
 for the extension of knowledge, except when the/orm of 
 the terms is different. Thus, 4 = 4, a = a, have no value ; 
 but 2 X 2 = 4, or (a + b)2 = a^ +2 ab + b^, and other 
 mathematical equations furnish us with a valuable instru- 
 ment for working out results. 
 
 The only form of the judgment, therefore, which really 
 widens our knowledge is the third, or that in which the 
 predicate is a broader term than the subject. Thus in the 
 word earth there is not involved the idea of revolution, so 
 that when I say to one who does not know the fact, The 
 earth revolves, I have extended his knowledge through the 
 synthetic judgment. So in the judgments, Carlo is a dog, 
 Most coral is red, Newton discovered the law of gravitation. 
 
 In every synthetic judgment, the predicate is a more 
 general term than the subject, but we need, at this point, 
 to perceive clearly the relation of content and extent in 
 
APPERCEPTION 43 
 
 these terms. Should we think only of extent and content 
 in the strictly logical sense, the judgment, This object is an 
 animal, it is plain to see would convey but very meager 
 knowledge, for the single-celled amoeba is an animal, and 
 has but few characteristics common to all animals. Should 
 I say in answer to the query. What kind of an animal ? 
 It is a vertebrate, I should greatly enrich the knowledge, for 
 the content is much enlarged. Contiuuing, I say, It is a 
 m,amnial ; it is carnivorous ; its family is Felidce ; its genus, 
 Felis ; its species, Felis domesticus Linnceus ; its variety, 
 Angorensis. At each stage, I have narrowed the extent, 
 and enriched the content of the notion of the object with 
 which I started. 
 
 But it must be remembered that with a mind which has 
 had any considerable experience, the term house-cat, for 
 instance, though logically itself restricted to a compara- 
 tively small extent, really presupposes the more extended 
 terms, mammal, vertebrate, animal. 
 
 We may say, then, in general, that the amount of in- 
 formation conveyed by any given predication depends upon 
 the wealth of content and the implied breadth of extent 
 which the predicate-term has for the learner. If, then, per- 
 ception gives me a new notion, I shall evidently understand 
 or apprehend it when I can subsume it under some familiar 
 predicate having greater extent and richer content than the 
 new object of thought has presented to my mind. From 
 the standpoint of the judgment, then, apperception may be 
 defined as follows : — 
 
 Apperception is the suhsumption of a notion, usually 7iewly 
 given and more or less individual, under a predicate which 
 is more complete in content and extent, and which is usually 
 older and more familiar. 
 
 Apperception does not always follow perception immedi- 
 
44 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 ately, for years sometimes intervene between the learning 
 of a fact and its comprehension. In general, a period of 
 reflection commonly precedes the complete apperception of 
 a new subject of knowledge ; though, as Lazarus says, " The 
 apperceiving conceptions usually stand, like armed soldiers, 
 within the strongholds of consciousness, ready to pounce 
 upon everything that shows itself within the portals of the 
 senses, in order to overcome it, and make it serviceable to 
 themselves." 
 
 The new is not always apperceived by the old, for it 
 often happens that old and apparently well-grounded ideas 
 are revolutionized by some new-found truth, which com- 
 pels a readjustment. This has often been the case in 
 science. The Copernican theory of the solar system com- 
 pelled a readjustment of the mediaeval religious conceptions 
 which had grown up in accordance with the Ptolemaic idea 
 that the heavens revolve about the earth. As Volkmann 
 says, "The indisputable evidence of a new perception 
 necessitates the already firmly fixed theory to undergo 
 modifications ; new experiences unsettle old convictions, 
 and in general break up old and cherished notions." If 
 such a transformation comes on suddenly, it is character- 
 ized by violent emotional excitement, as when we discover 
 treachery in one whom we have regarded as a friend. The 
 same phenomenon is seen in the changing of one's politi- 
 cal convictions, or in suddenly changing from a life of sin 
 to one of righteousness, through religious conversion. 
 
PART 11. 
 NECESSARY STAGES OF RATIONAL METHODS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 
 
 § 12. We have seen how apperception, or the subsiimp- 
 tion of new subjects under old predicates, is the condition 
 of understanding. It must at the feame time be the condi- 
 tion of all interest, for the mind has no interest in that 
 which it does not understand. Not all things understood 
 are interesting, but nothing not understood, in some degree 
 at least, can possibly awaken interest. There are, there- 
 fore, two powerful incentives for the teacher to study the 
 conditions of apperception, — the desire to have his pupils 
 comprehend, and the desire to have them interested. 
 
 § 13. It might, at first thought, seem that the native 
 spontaneity of the mind would do all that is necessary to 
 bring up these related conceptions which are to serve as 
 predicates for the new notions acquired through instruction, 
 but reflection will show that this is true to a limited extent 
 only. Who has not seen children completely baffled by 
 some mathematical relation, which a skillful question or 
 two would reveal ? Is it not a daily experience of the 
 teacher to find pupils failing to comprehend statements in 
 reading or grammar or number or natural science or geog- 
 raphy, simply because their own spontaneity of mind is- 
 
 45 
 
46 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 not sufficient to supply those interpreting ideas, which the 
 teacher might easily cause to appear in consciousness ? It 
 is, therefore, the first great function of the teacher to prepare 
 the way for the rapid and efficient assimilation of that 
 knoivledge which the study hour or the recitation period is to 
 furnish. 
 
 § 14. The teacher's activity in this first great depart- 
 ment of education is naturally of two kinds : (1) The 
 preparation of the child^s mind for a rapid and effective 
 assimilation of new knowledge, and (2) The presentation 
 of the ^natter of instruction in such order and unanner as will 
 best conduce to the most effective assiinilation. 
 
 PREPARATIOX. 
 
 § 15. From what has been said, it will be seen that this 
 term means that preliminary effort of the teacher, which is 
 designed to prepare the mind of the pupil for a ready 
 apperception, or assimilation, of the new knowledge about 
 to be presented. 
 
 § 16. To understand the real nature of this process, we 
 must recur to the first form of the judgment, or that form 
 in which the subject involves more than is seen in the 
 j)redicate. The child when he enters school knows many 
 things, has coupled many predicates to many subjects ; but 
 neither at this stage nor at any subsequent stage of his 
 education has he coupled to his subjects of knowledge all 
 the predicates involved in them. According to the law of 
 apperception no child can really learn and understand any 
 new knowledge for which he has not a store of related con- 
 ceptions which can be applied as predicates. It may be, 
 and most probably will be, the case that these needed predi- 
 cates are held in the child's knowledge only by implication, 
 "and that it will need a preparatory effort on the teacher's 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 47 
 
 part to bring the needed apperceiving conceptions to the full 
 consciousness of the pupil. Preparation, therefore, seeks 
 to recall former knowledge, and to bring to consciousness 
 those needed and implied conceptions which through predi- 
 cation should reach out like so many spiritual arms, to 
 embrace and draw into living relations to themselves the 
 new elements of knowledge which it is the business of the 
 hour to cause to appear in the mind of the child. 
 
 § 17. Where, as with small children or in certain kinds 
 of oral work, no lesson for study is assigned, this prepara- 
 tion will take place, in general, at the beginning of each 
 recitation, though it will often happen that a general prepa- 
 ration covering a whole section of a subject may render 
 much preparation on daily subdivisions unnecessary. This 
 matter will be further discussed under the subject of 
 method-wholes. In classes where lessons are regularly 
 assigned in text-books, the main part of the preparation 
 should be made when the lesson is assigned for study. A 
 repetition of the same at the beginning of the recitation 
 may be helpful. 
 
 The nature and amount of preparation necessary will 
 depend upon the mind of the pupil. In general, one year's 
 work is a preparation for the next ; so of the work of each 
 term or month or week or day, and it is on account of the 
 laws of apperception that gaps in education are to be 
 avoided. But this general preparation does not often 
 suffice. Though facts enough to explain the new lesson 
 may have been previously taught, the mind may, on account 
 of forgetfulness, or because it is busied with other things, 
 remain unconscious of them at the time when they are 
 needed to illuminate the new and make it instinct with 
 meaning by supplying the appropriate predicates. Or, if 
 the mind recalls the older and related conceptions, they 
 
48 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 may yet be dim and weak, or may fail to appear in the best 
 order, or they may be mere feeble general impressions. 
 Under such conditions, it is needful for the teacher to 
 make special effort to put the minds of his pupils into 
 proper relations to the lesson about to be imparted. 
 
 These efforts may be considered in the following order: — 
 (1) A clear and attractive statement of the object of the 
 lesson, or the end to be reached. Thus^ for example, the 
 teacher may say, "We have learned that the earth is a 
 great ball or globe which is free in space. We will now 
 consider whether it is at rest or in motion.'^ Or, "We 
 have seen that a fraction is multiplied by multiplying its 
 numerator ; let us see if it can be multiplied in any other 
 way." Or, "We have found that the nature of thought 
 gives rise to the subject, the copula, and the predicate, or 
 attribute, of the sentence ; let us see, if possible, what 
 property of thought gives rise to the adjective." But little 
 thought is needed to see that it would be very unpedagogi- 
 cal not to have the pupil understand from the beginning 
 what the aim of the lesson is. In the first place, an attrac- 
 tive or forcible statement of the end to be reached, helps to 
 dispel from the child's mind the distracting thoughts which 
 may be sporting there, and to prepare the way for what 
 the teacher wants to impart. Next, it helps to put the 
 pupil into the frame of mind in which it is desired he 
 should work. It excites expectation, stimulates interest, 
 and allows instruction to begin under favorable conditions. 
 It gives the pupil a favorable impulse towards right willing, 
 and disposes him to self-activity in the solution of the 
 appointed task. But when the end to be reached is not 
 indicated, the danger is that not only the above-mentioned 
 advantages will be sacrificed, but that the pupil, not know- 
 ing where he is going, will become confused, especially if 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 49 
 
 he is kept long in the dark. He cannot go forward intelli- 
 gently, nor can he retrace his steps. His mind is be- 
 wildered by perceiving results for which he is no longer 
 able to account. But if he advances with a clear conscious- 
 ness of the end he is striving to reach, he will not become 
 confused, unless the explanation itself is confusing. 
 
 (2) With the purpose or aim of the lesson about to be pre- 
 sented always in view, it is plain that the concepts result- 
 ing from the analysis of the present store of knowledge 
 should be derived or developed in unbroken and virtually 
 connected chain from the beginning to the close; for in 
 this way the mind reaches its greatest capability of taking 
 on and assimilating new knowledge. But if the time is 
 spent in recalling past concepts without any regard to their 
 co-ordination and logical connection, or in developing the 
 non-essential, it is plain that the child's mind will not be 
 so ready to apprehend the new lesson in its full signifi- 
 cance. The teacher should, therefore, endeavor to discover 
 which of those main concepts, already within the grasp of 
 the child, need to be recalled or derived in order best to 
 master the new lesson. He should then arrange these in 
 their logical order, and proceed to bring them to the child's 
 consciousness in this order. The ease with which this 
 logical arrangement can be secured will depend largely 
 upon the logical arrangement of the subject-matter of the 
 daily lessons. If this is what it should be, but little effort 
 at special arrangement is necessary in the preparation. 
 The more remote the new lesson is from the recent study 
 of the child, the more elaborate must be the preparation. 
 Ordinarily a few sharply put questions will suffice to place 
 the pupils in a frame of mind best adapted to understand 
 the new lesson. 
 
 (3) The preparation and the new lesson should not be 
 
60 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 mixed up together during the preparation, for this is likely 
 to lead to confusion of thought, and may lead to a lack of 
 interest. A foreshadowing of what is to come, however, 
 may secure increased interest and mental activity. If, 
 when a new truth is presented, a pupil discovers that he 
 had dimly foreseen it, his pleasure in the acquisition may 
 be greatly increased thereby. A skillful dramatist never 
 fully reveals his plot ahead of its unfolding, nor does he, 
 on the other hand, ever allow any great but entirely unex- 
 pected culmination to occur. Every stage in his drama is 
 a preparation for the next, but not a revelation of it. The 
 revelation of the unknown but not altogether unexpected 
 is a fine art with the dramatist and the novelist, and should 
 be with the teacher. 
 
 (4) The preparation should be so extended as to cover the 
 entire matter of the new lesson, or such part of it as may 
 be regarded as a method-whole, in order that time and 
 interest may not be sacrificed by tiresome explanations 
 after the presentation of the new matter has been begun. 
 Wherever much of this appears necessary, it is certain that 
 the preparation has been inadequate, or that the matter is 
 not suited to the present mental acquirements or ability of 
 the pupils. 
 
 (5) As to the form of the preparation, it may be remarked 
 that a free exchange of thought between teacher and pupils 
 in the form of question and answer, or conversation, is the 
 best. Anything that smacks of examination is out of 
 place, since it is destructive of that free movement of 
 thought which is here so desirable ; furthermore, it effects 
 no valuable result, besides being deadening to a direct 
 interest in the subject. Pupils delight in an exercise which 
 gives free play to their individuality, nor should this 
 free play of thought be rudely checked, even though 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 51 
 
 matters important only in the eyes of the child should be 
 developed. A skillful teacher can easily guide the free 
 thought of the pupils to the main issue, without checking 
 its spontaneity; besides, the announced purpose of the 
 lesson makes it easy to keep out irrelevant matter. 
 
 (6) Repetitions, and even drill upon the main points 
 brought out, may be profitable, but an exhibition of deep 
 earnestness of manner or tone is out of place in the prepa- 
 ration. This should be reserved for a later stage, when it 
 is desired to impress some new truth brought out by the 
 lesson. 
 
 When the teacher has done as much as he thinks profit- 
 able in way of preparation, he will proceed, as a matter of 
 course, to the presentation of the lesson. 
 
 PRESEXTATION. 
 
 § 18. It is not to be supposed that the child possesses so 
 much knowledge when he enters school that there is in- 
 volved in it all that he will subsequently need to know, so 
 that a mere analysis of what he now has will reveal all 
 that he should ever have. In this sense Jacotot's dictum, 
 All is in all, is false. New knowledge must be imparted. 
 Old predicates must be supplied with new subjects in which 
 the predicates are not already involved. These new predi- 
 cations enrich former ones, so that the subsuming of new 
 subjects under old predicates widens and enriches old 
 conceptions, which in turn extend the significance of sub- 
 sequent elements of knowledge. Omitting the second, or 
 identical, form of judgment, A is A, which as we have 
 seen is valuable only as a mathematical instrument for 
 ascertaining numerical relations, we come to the third 
 form of the judgment, in which the predicate is a broader 
 and deeper term than the subject. The first kind of judg- 
 
52 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 ment has been called analytical, because an analysis of the 
 subject shows that the predicate was already involved in 
 it. The third, or last, kind of judgment has been called 
 synthetical, because the predicate is something united to 
 the subject, — something which is outside of the subject, — 
 not implied in it. In the word Carlo is not involved the 
 idea dog, so that the sentence, Carlo is a dog, expresses a 
 true synthetic judgment. It is evident, then, that if the 
 child is to learn anything new, the teaching must be of this 
 synthetic, or additive, nature. Without the gaining and 
 assimilating of new facts, or elements of knowledge, there 
 can be but little advance in mental growth. At this stage 
 of our investigation, it is entirely immaterial how these facts 
 are obtained, so that they are 7ieiv, not already involved 
 in what the pupil knows. Facts may, for example, be ob- 
 tained by induction or by deduction, or they may be gained 
 through a primary use of the senses ; they may be learned 
 from a book or from the lips of the teacher. In any case, 
 presentation sees that these facts are brought to the con- 
 sciousness of the pupil in such a way that they may be 
 readily assimilated, or, in other words, be properly under- 
 stood. 
 
 § 19. An exhaustive treatise on presentation might con- 
 sider the whole course of development for each branch of 
 study, and also the relations of inter-dependence among the 
 various subjects of the curriculum, because each of these 
 departments of inquiry has a bearing on the reception and 
 assimilation of knowledge. One large German pedagogical 
 school advocate the presentation of most subjects according 
 to what is called the historical stages of culture ; this posi- 
 tion being taken, on the theory that each child, in its 
 development, passes through all the stages of thought 
 through which the world has passed in its historical devel- 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 53 
 
 opment. We should, therefore, say they present to a child 
 of any given age that stage in the development of the sub- 
 ject in which the world was at the time now typically 
 represented by the child. For example, Ziller and his 
 followers recommend the following order of topics foi 
 religion and history : first year, '^ Grimm's Fairy Tales " 
 (Marchen) ; second year, " Robinson Crusoe ; " third year, 
 Bible stories from the time of the patriarchs, " Legends of 
 Thuringia " (Thiiringer Sagen) ; fourth year, Bible stories 
 from the time of the Judges, then of the Kings, " Nibel- 
 ungen Tales ; " hfth year, Bible stories from the time of 
 Christ, History of Henry I., Otto I., Charlemagne; sixth 
 year, Bible stories from the time of Christ continued. Migra- 
 tion of the Nations, Roman Empire and the Pope, The 
 Crusades, The Middle Ages, Rudolph von Hapsburg; 
 seventh year. The Original Congregations or Churches, The 
 Apostle Paul, Discovery of America and its first settle- 
 ment. History of the Reformation, The Thirty Years' War ; 
 (eighth year. Instruction in the Catechism, " Frederick the 
 Great," The Napoleonic wars for independence, The Resto- 
 ration of the German Empire. 
 
 This school make religion and history the central sub- 
 jects for the work of each year, and seek to relate all the 
 other instruction to them. This is the idea of concentration^ 
 according to which no subject of study should be isolated 
 from the others, but all school study should be related to 
 some common center. Other eminent schoolmen claim 
 that the arrangement and co-ordination of school studies 
 should be quite otherwise. But, however interesting these 
 topics may be in themselves, they lie beyond the range 
 which has been set for this treatise on methods. 
 
 § 20. The questions of the selection, arrangement, and 
 co-ordination of school studies being excluded from our 
 
64 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 present consideration, we have now to examine the guiding 
 principles of a rational daily presentation of the matter of 
 instruction. 
 
 The Law of Successive Clearness. — AVe have seen 
 that any advance in knowledge comes by subsuming new 
 subjects under old predicates, — that this is the essence of 
 apperception, or mental assimilation. But this mental 
 movement is a movement in time. It requires a certain 
 amount of time to gain a clear perception of the new ele- 
 ments of knowledge, whether these elements originate 
 through the senses or through the understanding. It also 
 requires a certain amount of time for the predication. 
 Besides these two elements, there is an intellectual element 
 of thought, which enables the mind to perceive relations 
 between new and old elements of knowledge. As has been 
 hinted before, there is a reciprocal action between new 
 subject and old predicate. If the older and broader predi- 
 cates enable the mind to understand the significance of 
 the new elements of knowledge, so, on the other hand, do 
 the new subjects broaden and complete the former concep- 
 tions which serve as predicates.'^ 
 
 1 Dr. W, T. Harris says (Rosenkranz, " Philosophy of Education," pp. 
 75, 76), " Perception is increased immensely in power by adding to it con- 
 ception, which brings the aid of the general image in which are summed 
 up all previous perceptions; thus perception re-enforced by conception is 
 an individual activity re-enforced by the sum-total of the race activity, or 
 at least by the sum-total of all previous activity of the same individual 
 as well as by what he has learned from his fellows. Thus, too, percep- 
 tion is still more increased by adding to it the thinking activity, which 
 perceives necessary relations. Agassiz looks at a new lish from the 
 Amazon River, and sees at once its type and its variations ; knows at once 
 the great mass of its properties, functions, faculties, habits, and history, 
 simply by its classification under already known genera, species, and sub- 
 classes. This enables him to distinguish at once its variations from the 
 general type, and to see the significance of its peculiarities. In the same 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 55 
 
 Upon the fact that certain easily distinguishable amounts 
 of time are required for this reception and apprehension of 
 individual notions, and the interaction between individual 
 and general conceptions, is based the law of successive 
 
 CLEARNESS. 
 
 § 21. This law was first announced by Ratich, and was 
 afterwards developed and applied by Herbart and Ziller. 
 According to this idea, the matter of instruction must not 
 be presented in the mass, but in small, logically connected 
 sections, to each of which, in succession, the pupil should 
 give his undivided attention. In this way, one by one, 
 individual notions are clearly perceived. But, as already 
 explained, individual notions are not assimilated until they 
 are subsumed under predicates. It is thus evident that 
 after the mind has given its concentrated attention to each 
 of the successive sections of the lesson in turn, these sub- 
 divisions must be brought into close relation and connec- 
 tion ; i.e., must through predication be brought into a unity 
 in consciousness. To neglect the division of the lesson into 
 
 manner a botanist (Professor Gray, for example) glances at a tree as he 
 passes it rapidly, from the car window. He sees its resemblances and its 
 differences, however, in that rapid glance, because he subsumes it under 
 all that he knows ; all that is known, in fact, as the aggregate result of 
 all observations for thousands of years. By recognizing its series, class, 
 sub-class, order, sub-order, tribe, genus, species, and variety, he is in- 
 stantly in possession of information enough to make a library of books on 
 the subject of that one tree. He saw enough, too, in the rapid glance to 
 inform himself of its individual differences, its particular size, shape, and 
 condition, in so far as these were peculiar. Contrast this with the infor- 
 juation obtained by the sense-perception of an observer endowed with 
 excellent sight but no knowledge of botany. Science, which is the 
 I)roduct of conception and thinking, thus re-enforces sense-perception, 
 which demands for its perfection those higher activities ; and, vice versa, 
 thinking and conception, which deal with the universal, or the possibility 
 and the process which creates particular individuals, demand sense-per- 
 ception to take cognizance of those individuals." 
 
56 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 minor unities, or sections, would be to sacrifice clearness of 
 individual notions, and to get only crude general impres- 
 sions of the whole. On the other hand, to fail to associate 
 the parts of the lesson, and to bring them to consciousness 
 as a logical unity, would be to leave the mind distracted by 
 the apprehension of a confused mass of disconnected details. 
 These two steps, the absorption of individual notions, and 
 bheir apperception as connected, Herbart compares to the 
 process of breathing, calling them the inspiration and expi- 
 ration of the soul. Our maxim, step by step, has to do with 
 this process, but it is incomplete, for it suggests only the 
 subdivision, without hinting at its purpose, the clear per- 
 ception of individuals and their proper synthesis in con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 § 22. The matter of instruction must, therefore, be pre- 
 sented in natural subdivisions, thus giving resting-places 
 which allow the mind to recover from its absorption in the 
 individual, and to fortify itself against distraction by bring- 
 ing its knowledge into wholes. How minute the subdivi- 
 sions of the lesson should be, must be determined by the 
 age and mental strength of the pupils. Arithmetic and 
 mathematics in general furnish the most perfect exemplifi- 
 -eation of the truth of the law of successive clearness, and 
 of the necessity of obeying it. If the steps of reasoning in 
 a problem are not separated and mastered one by one, there 
 is instant danger of confusion, though the amount which a 
 pupil can master at one impulse grows with advancing 
 mental ability. The same law holds, also, in all other 
 branches. Take, for example, the first lesson in the Second 
 Reader. If the books are opened, and the pupils are di- 
 rected to read at sight, the probability is that the result 
 will be a failure. All the difficulties come at once upon 
 the pupil. Many of the old words will not be recognized 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 57 
 
 in their new surroundings, while the new words can of 
 course not be grasped at once, nor can the new thought, 
 in accordance with this law, the teacher must determine 
 what the difficulties are likely to be, and then overcome 
 them one by one. He should, for instance, refresh the 
 minds of his pupils upon those words of the lesson which 
 they have had before, but which they may not at once 
 remember. He can do this by writing them upon the 
 board in familiar sentences, or by pointing to them on the 
 chart, or by spelling them out with detached letters. Then 
 he must give instruction upon new words. He might, 
 when the pupils know the subject of the lesson, easily draw 
 from them the ideas likely to be found in such a lesson. 
 He could then place upon the board the new words repre- 
 senting these ideas, and by spelling, syllabicating, phonic 
 analysis, etc., impress them upon the minds of his pupils. 
 The reading may now proceed with some prospect of suc- 
 cess, for the teacher has observed the law of successive 
 clearness, has proceeded step by step. 
 
 § 23. The Series. — Since all mental activity presup- 
 poses time as its necessary condition, it follows that all our 
 per(ieptions, and knowledge in general, so far as one ele- 
 ment does not fuse or coincide compl-etely with another, 
 must be acquired and held in time series. Upon the 
 intimacy of association depends very largely the power of 
 reproducing, or remembering, all the numbers of a series 
 when one of them is given. It follows from this, that it is 
 a prime duty of the teacher to see that the elements of what 
 is presented are arranged in natural series, so that intimate 
 and lasting associations can be formed. As an illustration 
 of how easily even bare words can be held if associated, let 
 the reader note the following list of ten words, thinking as 
 he reads of how each word suggests its successor : Glad- 
 
58 TBE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 stojie, quarry, blasting, dynamite, Anarchists, Haymarket, 
 meadow, sheep, wool, protection. Having done this, lay 
 aside the book, and repeat the list from memory. It is 
 quite as easy to repeat it backward as forward, or to begin 
 with any word of the series, and recite either way. Hun- 
 dreds of words can be associated in this way, and easily re- 
 cited forward and backward or from any intermediate word. 
 But if we take ten unassociated words, we shall find much 
 mental effort necessary to accomplish the same results, 
 thus : quarry, Haymarket, blasting, meadow, dynamite, wool, 
 Gladstone, sheep, protection. Anarchists. 
 
 Few lessons can or should be arranged in this artificial 
 way, but the laws of association as presented in our psy- 
 chologies should be studied and constantly applied. This 
 natural coherence of parts is one of the indications of a 
 good text-book. Beware of the book which presents a mass 
 of disconnected details. An observation of the laws of 
 association in the formation of the series renders learning 
 more easy and more permanent. This is especially recom- 
 mended for those persons who have a poor verbal, or 
 mechanical, memory. 
 
 It is often necessary to form the series, even when direct 
 association cannot be appealed to, as in the case of arith- 
 metical tables. Time is an important element in fixing 
 any series, and especially those of mathematics. Enough 
 time should be given, so that any member, rising into 
 consciousness, will instantly and surely recall the others. 
 Thoughtful and constant repetition is essential to success 
 in learning a series of disconnected facts. 
 
 § 24. Since knowledge is most easily gained and longest 
 retained by an observation of the laws of association in the 
 formation of the series, it is easy to see that it would be 
 most unpedagogical to make a practice of destroying oi 
 
APPERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 59 
 
 breaking up the series, by the insertion of new, or the sub- 
 traction of old members. 
 
 It is not difficult to see the loss which must occur in 
 instruction, if, after a series has been laboriously fixed in 
 the mind of a child, so that he is master of it, the teacher 
 should proceed to undo his work by breaking up the series. 
 Suppose, for example, a pupil learns a map-lesson in geog- 
 raphy in a given grade. This lesson forms a series in 
 which each member is related to others of the series, and 
 serves to call them up. If now, upon going into the next 
 grade, half a dozen new members be inserted into the 
 former series, it is plain that the first series is destroyed, 
 so that the injected members compel the learning of an 
 entirely new series. This kind of procedure would, if sys- 
 tematically continued, result in the constant formation and 
 destruction of series, and thus cause great educational 
 waste. If it be found necessary, however, to insert new 
 matter into an old series, this should be understood by the 
 pupil, and the amended whole be treated as a new series. 
 
 It is possible, however, so to arrange instruction that 
 each new fact taught shall be but an onward step in the 
 development of the subject, causing only an extension, and 
 not a destruction, of former series. This is illustrated in 
 arithmetic, for example, in the successive mastery of tables ; 
 in history, in the continuation of topics taught in a more 
 elementary form in the lower grades ; in grammar, in the 
 more and more elaborate modification of the principal ele- 
 ments of the sentence by means of words and inflections. 
 In geography it would seem that names of places, rivers, 
 etc., should be taught in a series but once, and that rather 
 late in school life. The earlier grades should be learning 
 series which will not need to be destroyed later through 
 the introduction of new matter. 
 
60 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 § 25. Fixing Series in the Mind — In order to impress 
 it firmly on the mind, and to secare intimate fusion, or 
 association of its parts, the series arising from each sub- 
 division of the lesson must, without undue haste, be re- 
 peated often enough and in enough different ways, so that 
 the members will have sufficient time to become firmly 
 united (Ziller). 
 
 Next to the formation of the series in instruction comes 
 the need of fixing it in the mind. This, as we have seen, 
 needs time. It needs, also, a constant attention to the 
 matter in hand. Repetition gives the time, and skill on 
 the part of the teacher will secure the atte7ition. Every 
 teacher knows that repetition without attention accom- 
 plishes little. One of the chief purposes of device in 
 methods is to secure the requisite attention for the mastery 
 of difficult series. Novelty of device is worthy of consid- 
 eration, for what is new claims the attention of children. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TRANSITION FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 
 GENERAL VIEW. 
 
 § 26. It is a chief business of education to pass from dis- 
 tinctly perceived individual notions to clear general notions 
 (Festalozzi). 
 
 We have seen that without individual notions, knowledge, 
 and consequently education, cannot begin ; and that without 
 attaining to the general notion intelligence cannot be 
 human. In these two facts is implied the truth of Pesta- 
 lozzi's saying. It is this truth we try to express in the 
 terms, education (educo), drawing-out pi'ocess, mental power; 
 depth of insight, genius, etc. Some have imagined the 
 drawing-out process to mean getting from the children facts 
 which have been taught to them, and in their original form ; 
 i.e., drawing out at the faucet what has been poured in at the 
 bung ! If the drawing-out process means anything, it means 
 the passing from the particular to the general, the transi- 
 tion, through reflection, from individual to general notions. 
 If pupils perform this transition but imperfectly, however, 
 they become lost in the individual ; " they cannot," as one 
 writer expresses it, "see the woods for the trees." Who 
 does not know people who are able to take no more than a 
 microscopic view of things ? Who does not know teachers 
 that unceasingly cram their pupils with individual facts, hav- 
 ing but little regard to their true meaning and their relation 
 
 61 
 
62 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 to the significant general truth which may be derived from 
 these facts, in themselves entirely insignificant ? 
 
 Twenty-five hundred years ago, Socrates taught men in 
 the streets of Athens. He did not, however, spend his 
 time in imparting new knowledge. It was not the indi- 
 vidual horse, but the universal horse which claimed his 
 attention. He said he was helping men to give birth to 
 their ideas. Not ideas which they had, but could not 
 express, but general truths implied in their knowledge, 
 which they had not been able to derive alone. The 
 Socratic method, therefore, is but one of the stages in any 
 complete system of instruction. It seeks not to impart 
 new facts, nor to assist in the assimilation or understanding 
 of new knowledge through the mediation of former knowl- 
 edge, but is concerned solely with the derivation or abstrac- 
 tion of the rational content potentially contained in any 
 given body of facts; i.e., it tries to discover what is the 
 general, or necessary, truth contained in any given body 
 of individual notions. 
 
 It is further evident that education must make it a 
 special business to teach the child to pass easily and se- 
 curely from the individual to the general, because the 
 generalizations of children, savages, and uneducated or 
 poorly educated persons are very elementary and incom- 
 plete. They do not contain all the characteristics common 
 to a given class, nor do they exclude all characteristics 
 which inhere only in certain individuals. The untrained 
 thinker is content with types chosen from among individu- 
 als ; so that, even in the formation of general conceptions 
 regarding things, the mind must be trained to distinguish 
 the essential from the non-essential. But if this is true in 
 things, how much more must it be true in regard to a per- 
 ception of the necessary relation of things, and in respect 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 63 
 
 to what is essential and what is non-essential in character. 
 Any general, for instance, knows enough to fight when he 
 is surrounded and attacked, but not every one sees, as Grant 
 did at Chattanooga, how the placing of a battery here, the 
 arrangement of troops there, the forward movement in an- 
 other place, will cause the frowning batteries to retreat, and 
 the heavy lines of the enemy to roll back like clouds before 
 the sun. Two men may have equal knowledge of the ele- 
 mentary forces in physics ; the one sees the relation of these 
 forces, and constructs a useful machine, the other allows 
 his knowledge to lie inert and fruitless in his mind. Two 
 lawyers may have the same knowledge of the facts in a 
 law case ; the one sees the relation of things, that is, sees 
 the general truth involved in the particulars, and wins his 
 case. He sees the points ; the other sees all but the points. 
 The one has learned to pass, by reflection, from the indi- 
 vidual to the general ; the other has not. 
 
 The necessity of proceeding from the individual, through 
 reflection, to the general, as an educative process, has 
 always been recognized by the great thinkers. " Percep- 
 tions without conceptions are blind," says Kant, just as 
 " conceptions without perceptions are empty." This means 
 that intelligence cannot stop with the individual, but 
 must through its own activity find the universal in the 
 particular. 
 
 Lessing, in his treatise on the fable, says, "Why is 
 there in all sciences such a lack of discoverers and inde- 
 pendent thinkers ? This question is best answered through 
 another, Why are we not better educated ? God gives us 
 the soul, but genius, talent, ability we must get through 
 education. A boy whose whole mental powers are, so far 
 as possible, constantly extended in every direction ; who is 
 accustomed rapidly to compare all that is daily added to 
 
64 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 his store of knowledge with what he knew yesterday, in 
 order to see if through this comparison he does not come 
 upon things which were never told him ; who is constantly 
 led out of one science into another ; ivho is taught to rise 
 from the particular to tJie general as easily as to descend 
 from the general to the particular again ; — such a hoy must 
 become a genius, or one can become nothing in this world." 
 It is our present duty to inquire into the nature of this 
 process of passing from the individual to the general, in 
 order to throw as much light as possible on methods of 
 teaching. 
 
 § 27. Each general notion necessarily implies a number 
 of individual notions to which it relates. It is plain that 
 that which is common to two notions cannot be perceived 
 as common unless the two notioiis are both in consciousness 
 at the same time. Simultaneity is, therefore, a condition 
 of all mental association. There is, also, a constant ten- 
 dency to associate in some way things present to conscious- 
 ness at the same time ; and, with untutored minds, even to 
 associate simultaneous or successive events as causally con- 
 nected when no such relation exists. Thus, if certain 
 events are observed several times to be simultaneous with 
 a given phase of the moon, superstitious people are likely 
 to connect this phase of the moon and the events as cause 
 and effect. It is evident, at once, that were there nothing 
 but the original time connection of perceptions possible, 
 our knowledge would be but a chaos of accidentally asso- 
 ciated notions, and that any comprehensive general notions 
 would be impossible. 
 
 § 28. The mind must, therefore, be trained to break up those 
 accidental, historic associatio7is, and to form- new associations 
 which shall accord with the true nature of the notions asso- 
 ciated. In other words, before any general notion can be 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 65 
 
 formed, memory must bring together in consciousness, a 
 number of truly and logically related individual notions, 
 which were, perhaps, historically separated in the order of 
 their original perception. 
 
 § 29. We can, then, see likeness and difference in two 
 or more notions, only when they are simultaneously in 
 consciousness. It is equally evident that, in order to per- 
 ceive these likenesses or differences, comparison of the 
 various notions is also necessary. If, in this comparison 
 of notions, we a.ssociate those things which naturally and 
 of necessity belong together, we are cultivating thought^ or 
 insight; if, however, we make arbitrary and fanciful con- 
 nections, we are cultivating imagination. This discussion 
 will be confined to those associations with which thought or 
 insight is concerned. 
 
 § 30. Comparison of logically connected individual 
 notions is, then, the first step in passing from the indi- 
 vidual to the general. When several related notions 
 present to consciousness are compared, it seems but a step 
 of simple perception, perhaps through the judgment of 
 identity (J zr A), to see that an element of A is common 
 also to B and C. Were there, for instance, but three indi- 
 viduals embraced in the extent of any given general notion, 
 and these three could all be present to consciousness at the 
 same time, this simple perception of common characteristics 
 and their synthesis would suffice to give rise to the general 
 notion of these things. But it can easily be seen that any 
 newly perceived object must at once be subsumed under a 
 class, even though it be the class thing, or animate thing, 
 or inanimate thing, or animal^ or vegetable, or vertebrate, or 
 invertebrate, etc. ; so that the vital question is, How do 
 new classes arise ? What is the process through which the 
 mind passes in arriving at universals ? This is synony- 
 
66 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 mous with the question, What is the nature of inductio7i ? 
 The subject of induction has been treated at length by 
 many learned men, but it has remained to Dr. William T. 
 Harris to strip the subject of its mistiness, and to present 
 it so clearly and simply that any ordinarily trained mind 
 can comprehend it.^ 
 
 § 31. To his explanation we will now address ourselves. 
 Intimately connected with the subject of induction is that 
 of apperception, already discussed in a general way in these 
 pages. We have found apperception to be, as a general 
 thing, the subsumption of new subjects under older, wider, 
 and deeper predicates. We shall now find that Dr. flarris 
 explains this process more exactly and from a different 
 standpoint. His fundamental inquiry is. What is the rela- 
 tion of the syllogism, as taught in logic, to apperception and 
 to the formation of general notions ; or, in other words, 
 What is the relation of the syllogism to apperce2)tion and 
 to induction ? 
 
 The syllogism consists of a major and a minor premise 
 and a conclusion. The conclusion has a subject and a 
 predicate, called terms. The subject and predicate of the 
 conclusion appear also as terms in the two premises. The 
 subject is symbolized by S, the predicate by P. There is 
 also another term appearing in the premises, which serves 
 to mediate between the subject and predicate of tlie conclu- 
 sion, or to bring them together. It is symbolized by the 
 letter M. We have now three symbols of terms which 
 appear in the syllogisms. But these symbols may be differ- 
 ently arranged, and according to the three chief arrange- 
 ments possible, we have what are called the three figures 
 of the syllogism. 
 
 1 niinois School Journal, Nos. 88, 89, 90, 1888-89. 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 67 
 
 FIRST FIGURE. 
 
 (1) Mis P: Man is mortal. 
 
 (2) S is M: Socrates is a man. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is P : Hence, Socrates is mortal. 
 
 Here the middle term (M) is the subject of the first 
 premise and the predicate of the second, and unites the sub- 
 ject and predicate of the conclusion, because it contains the 
 subject (Socrates) and is itself included under the predicate 
 (mortal). 
 
 SECOND FIGURE. 
 
 (1) S is M : This animal barks. 
 
 (2) P is M: Dogs bark. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is P : Hence, this animal is (probably) a dog. 
 
 Here the middle term (M) is the predicate in each pre- 
 mise, and unites subject and predicate of the conclusion, 
 because it contains both subject (this animal) and predicate 
 (dog). This figure is valid, or invariably true, only in the 
 negative. Thus : — 
 
 (1) S is M : This animal climbs trees. 
 
 (2) No P is ]M : No dog climbs trees. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is not P : Hence, this animal is not a dog. 
 
 As we shall see, however, apperception starts with the 
 second figure, even though not valid, and fortifies itself by 
 means of the first. 
 
 THIRD FIGURE. 
 
 (1) M is S : All men are animals. 
 
 (2) M is P; All men are rational. 
 
 (3) Hence (some) S is P : Hence, some animals are rational. 
 
 Here the middle term {M) is the subject of the premises, 
 and brings the subject and predicate of the conclusion 
 together, because it is contained in them both. 
 
68 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 In the case of the apperception of objects perceived 
 through the senses, perception precedes apperception ; that 
 is, the process begins with particulars, or attributes, and 
 hence, if any figu/e of the syllogism is implied, it must be 
 the second, for in this case the middle term (31) is an 
 attribute. To illustrate : Suppose I see a moving object in 
 high grass. It looks like a tail curled over a back. The 
 mind would act as follows : — 
 
 (1) That is a tail curled over a back. 
 
 (2) Dogs curl their tails over their backs. 
 
 (3) Hence, this object is (probably) a dog. 
 
 or, according to the formula of the second figure, 
 
 (1) S is M. 
 
 (2) P is M. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is P (probably) . 
 
 Accordingly, the first stage of apperception is taken by 
 means of the second figure. But I wish to be sure, and I 
 now proceed to test the correctness of my conclusion by 
 the first figure of the syllogism, and I think 
 
 (1) Certain characteristics, such as ears of a general t3^pe, 
 four legs, a peculiar general shape, etc., belong to all dogs. 
 
 (2) This object has these characteristics. 
 
 (3) Hence, this animal is a dog. 
 
 or, according to the formula of the first figure, 
 
 (1) M is P. 
 
 (2) S is M. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is P. 
 
 Proceeding further with the identification, I think 
 
 (1) My dog, Don, has one black ear, a white body, a slight 
 limp in one hind leg, etc. 
 
 (2) This dog has these characteristics. 
 
 (3) Hence, it is Don. 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 69 
 
 When the process of apperception is analyzed, we find 
 that it begins with a tentative identification of the new 
 object of perception with some well-known object, through 
 the mediation of the second figure of the syllogism; and 
 that this first identification is verified or rejected by means 
 of the first figure. Of course, it is not meant here, that 
 children or even adults consciously use these syllogistic 
 figures, but only that this is the natural movement of the 
 mind in apperception. 
 
 We come now to the question, How do general notions 
 arise ? or, in other words. What is the process of mind in 
 induction ? 
 
 When the third figure is examined, it is apparent that it 
 can be used only after the first two, for their action is pre- 
 supposed in b'oth major and minor premise. To say, all 
 men are animals (j\I is *S^), is to recognize the subject 
 (animals) in the middle term (all men). But this is the 
 process of identifying, as explained through the second and 
 the first figures. The same is true when we say, all men 
 are rational (iWis P). Thus, in the third figure, there are 
 two identifications, both involving the second and the first 
 figures of the syllogism. 
 
 The third figure, as we have seen, is 
 
 (1) M is S. 
 
 (2) i\r is P. 
 
 (3) Hence, S is P. 
 
 To see how this syllogism acts in giving us a new class, 
 let us suppose that we are familiar with the common work- 
 horse only. Now we see a very large dapple-gray animal, 
 which by the other figures we find to be a horse. The 
 following results : — 
 
 (1) M is S : This object is a horse. 
 
70 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 By a second identification, we have the second premise, 
 
 (2) ]M is P : This object is very large, is dapple-gray, etc. 
 (8) Hence, some horses are very large dapple-grays (or other 
 colors) . 
 
 We will call them Norman horses. We have now from a 
 single observation the basis of a new class. If no more obser- 
 vations are made, this basis will remain only a potential 
 class, — it will not become actual. But should repeated 
 observation give us new objects which can be identified as 
 belonging with the object first observed, a well-defined class 
 will arise. 
 
 An important question now arises : What sort of charac- 
 teristics shall be chosen for the formation of new classes ? 
 Should a number of miscellaneous articles be placed before 
 a child for classification, accidental and non-essential charac- 
 teristics might be chosen as a basis, rather than more essen- 
 tial ones. Scientific classification always seeks a vital or 
 causal basis, while persons in immature stages of thought 
 are content to classify according to characteristics which 
 appeal most strongly to the senses. We may, therefore, 
 distinguish two bases for new classes.: (1) external, obtru- 
 sive characteristics ; and (2) vital, or necessary (causal), 
 characteristics. In the classification of animals, external 
 marks of color, shape, size, presence or absence of append- 
 ages, may be used as the basis ; but the naturalist looks 
 deeper and classifies in accordance with characteristics 
 which seem necessary to the existence of the animal; as, 
 e.g., the various organs for obtaining, masticating, and 
 digesting food. For instance, a certain kind of animals, 
 say, ruminants, might be loosely classified according to their 
 horns or their hoofs, but a classification based upon the 
 number and kind of teeth would be subject to far less varia- 
 
FROM TNDIVTDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 71 
 
 tion ; for tlie teeth bear a much more intimate relation to 
 the existence of the animal than do either horns or hoofs. 
 The mind approaches scientific classification through many 
 stages of convenient though loose classification, so that it 
 becomes a great problem in education to know at any given 
 stage of the child's mind just what degree of abstraction it 
 is capable of attaining in each study. 
 
 Note. — The habit of generalizing upon insufficient data is a most 
 common one, and is often indulged in, even by well-educated people, 
 if they happen to make observations in an unfamiliar field. The fol- 
 lowing incident will illustrate this point. An American professor was 
 traveling in Germany, and being a little late, one summer day, had 
 to run in order to catch his train. This, of course, started the perspira- 
 tion, and, fearing he might take cold, the professor drew on his over- 
 coat when he reached the car. A German had been an interested 
 observer of the incident, and learning soon after that the professor 
 was an American, he took out his notebook, and wrote as follows : 
 *' Americans put on their overcoats when they get warm." The pro- 
 fessor, who had begun to chat with the German, noted the action, and 
 suspecting something of its purport, asked the German what he had 
 written. Upon being told, the professor laughed, but made no com- 
 ment in remonstrance. Soon after, the conductor came along, and 
 being an acquaintance of the German, stopped to chat with him, and 
 finally offered him a cigar. The German replied that he did not 
 smoke, but liked to have something in his mouth, and that conse- 
 quently he usually held his lead-pencil there. Upon hearing this, the 
 professor drew out his notebook hastily, and made this entry : "Ger- 
 mans do not smoke cigars, they smoke lead-pencils." The German, 
 of course, saw the action, and inquired its purport. Upon seeing the 
 entry, he laughed, and proposed that both of them should revise their 
 generalizations. 
 
 § 32. As we have seen, the general notion in the 
 restricted sense is symbolized by the norm. Nouns are, 
 therefore, in themselves abstract terms. It is easy to under- 
 stand why the education which was based upon the wo7^d 
 
72 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 alone should become meaningless and formal, and we do 
 not wonder that Pestalozzi revolted against it. He insisted 
 that, instead of presupposing such an acquaintance with 
 nature, and such an experience in general as would give a 
 meaning to these abstract terms, tlie educator should pjroceed 
 to give the child an experience of the individual, so far as he 
 does not possess it, and then lead him by his own thinking 
 to the general notion, which is symbolized by the noun, or 
 expressed in definitions, rules, maxims, etc. In this way 
 the word becomes a living force, instead of a dead form. 
 Hence arose the motto. First the idea, then the word. 
 This motto, if properly understood, is true and valuable, 
 but may be easily misinterpreted. It is evident that, with 
 little children, for instance, the motto cannot mean that the 
 idea, or general notion as it really is, must be developed in 
 its logical completeness so far as extent and characteristics 
 are concerned. If this were so, the child should never 
 have the word cat given to it until it had mastered a 
 zoological system ; nor could it acquire the word line until 
 able to master the metaphysical conception of extension in 
 length, but without breadth or thickness, and until an ex- 
 perience of lines of all sorts, straight, curved, and broken, 
 had enabled it to arrive at a true logical conception of the 
 line. 
 
 At first, the word, though itself abstract, is to the child a 
 sign of an individual object ; and, hence, at this stage, to 
 give the idea before the word is to show the individual ob- 
 ject. Later, the word becomes a symbol for some notion 
 not definitely limited in extent and content, which serves 
 as a type. This notion is often an indistinct image, only 
 the main characteristics being emphasized ; it is well illus- 
 trated in composite photography. In this stage, to give 
 the idea before the word would be to develop a logically 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 73 
 
 imperfect general notion from the particulars wliich may 
 be at hand. In the third stage, the word is a sign of a 
 scientifically complete general notion, as the word tj'ee was 
 to Professor Gray, or as the word I hie is to the mathema- 
 tician. To give the idea before the word here would be to 
 gain the ends of all knowledge before learning the common- 
 est words of childhood. Long before this stage is reached, 
 the word has been learned, and comes to the teacher as 
 one of his greatest aids. Scientifically, to give the idea 
 before the word, means nothing more than to proceed 
 according to the law of apperception; i.e., to see that a 
 predicate, greater in extent and content than the subject, 
 can be applied by the child. If the predicate is only a 
 little broader than the subject, there will be some appre- 
 hension of the new idea. The more complete the predicates 
 are, the more complete the apperception will be. 
 
 § 33. If the present view is correct, there must he con- 
 stant progress from the individual to the general at all stages 
 of school life. There must also be a constant progress in 
 the character of the general, from those primary stages 
 when types more or less individual in character represent 
 the universal, and when accidental characteristics form the 
 basis of classification, up to the complete, scientifically 
 perfect general notion, which is the ripe final product of 
 properly conducted education. To discover these various 
 stages towards logical completeness in the general notion for 
 all ages of childhood and youth , and in all school studies, 
 would he to solve one of our most important pedagogical 
 prohlems. So far as the child is concerned, this Avould 
 imply a power on the teacher's part to discover at all stages 
 the, limit of the child's power to generalize ; or, in other 
 words, to unify common characteristics in whatever realm 
 of school study; to make valid generalizations. Too many 
 
74 th:b: essentials of method. 
 
 of our authors talk as if there were a long period of the 
 child's life in which he can do little but observe, when the 
 perceptive powers absorb the whole energy of the mind ; 
 and that, consequently, the sole duty of the teacher is to 
 cram the mind with facts, making little or no effort, con- 
 scious or unconscious, to enable the child to see the univer- 
 sal which underlies the particular. This is certainly an 
 erroneous and injurious view. 
 
 That what has thus far been said is in full accord with 
 the true spirit of the reform inaugurated by Pestalozzi, may 
 be seen from the following quotation : " When I considered 
 the whole of instruction, or, rather, instruction as a whole 
 and in connection with the actual condition of the masses 
 of children who are to be instructed, I could not conceal 
 from myself that the school instruction, as I actually saw 
 it, was wholly unfit for the great public and the lower 
 classes. The feeling began, day by day, to develop in me 
 that it was essentially impossible permanently to remove 
 the great mass of school evils, unless teachers could arrive 
 at the point when the jj could subordinate the mechanical form 
 of all instruction to the eternal laivs, loherehy the human 
 sjnrit rises from sense perceptions to clear general 
 CONCEPTIONS (general notions). In those laws I thought 
 surely to find the thread out of which to weave a universal 
 psychological method of instruction. 
 
 " (1) Learn, therefore, to arrange thy perceptions, and to 
 complete the simple before proceeding to the complex. 
 
 " (2) Further, bring together in thy mind all those things 
 which essentially belong together, in the same connection 
 in which they are actually found in nature. 
 
 " (3) Strengthen and intensify thy impressions of impor- 
 tant objects, by bringing them nearer through art, and by 
 making them act upon thee through the different senses. 
 
FHOM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 75 
 
 " (4) Kegard all the effects of physical nature as absolutely 
 necessary, and recognize in this necessity the result of 
 the power with which they unify their apparently hetero- 
 geneous elements to the realization of their purpose ; and 
 let the art with which thou, through instruction, workest 
 upon thy race, as well as the results which it effects, be 
 elevated to a like physical necessity, so that in all of thy 
 doing, all means, however heterogeneous in appearance, 
 work together for the accomplishment of their great pur- 
 pose." 
 
 This, then, is the great merit of Pestalozzi, that whereas 
 the men of his time began instruction with the abstract, 
 with words whose content was unknown to the children, he 
 began with the individual things, from which alone the 
 abstractions could gain any significance in the minds of 
 the pupils. Instead of presupposing an experience, he 
 supplied one. Instruction is ever swinging between two 
 extremes, under hed generals, and ungeneralized particulars. 
 Undue conservatism tends to the former, and unthinking 
 radicalism to the latter. Pestalozzi struck the golden 
 mean, when he said, the mind must ever rise from clear 
 individual to distinct general notions. 
 
 SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 § 34. In our analysis of the nature of abstraction, or the 
 passing from individual to general truth, we found that it 
 arises, in general, through the comparison of related indi- 
 vidual notions, and a positing, through induction, of the 
 universality of the perceived common characteristics. It 
 will now be helpful to distinguish between mathematical 
 and non-mathematical generalizations, since the two are 
 quite unlike. 
 
 § 35. Men never cease to dispute about the significance 
 
76 J HE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 of historical or social or economic facts, so that new gener- 
 alizations are constantly formulated concerning them ; but 
 when once the conditions of a mathematical problem are 
 understood, there can be no further controversy. The 
 generalizations of mathematics appeal to the mind as 
 universally and necessarily true, as soon as they are per- 
 ceived. In the idea straightness is not necessarily involved 
 the idea shortness, but the mind has only to think a straight 
 line between two points to perceive that this line measures 
 the shortest distance between them. If it be desired to 
 deduce a rule for multiplying a fraction by an integer, a 
 single problem will suffice as well as a thousand to bring 
 the mind to a knowledge of the law and a belief in its 
 universality. Suppose the illustrative problem to be, multi- 
 ply f by 2. Let two pieces of paper having the same shape 
 and size be taken and folded into fourths. Tear off \ from 
 each. What now remains of each is f . If, now, the nature 
 of multiplication is already understood, which must be pre- 
 supposed, the child will see that 2 times f , or 2 3's of 4ths, 
 equals the value of the two remaining pieces of paper, or 
 6 fourths ; i.e., the number of parts has been doubled, 
 their size remaining the same, and hence the value of the 
 fraction has been doubled by multiplying the numerator 
 by 2. In general, multiplying the numerator of a fraction 
 multiplies the value of the fraction, because it niultiplies the 
 uumber of pa7^ts, leavijig their size the same. Again, take 
 the two pieces of paper, each containing | of the original 
 paper, and arrange the 6 fourths into groups of two each. 
 We find that there are three of them ; but two fourths 
 equal one half, hence f x 2 = -I, or this fraction is multi- 
 plied by 2 by dividing its denominator by 2, for though 
 the number of parts is the same, their size has been 
 doubled. In general, dividifig the denomifiator of a fraction 
 
FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 77 
 
 multiplies the value of the fractio7i, since it multiplies the 
 size of the parts, leaving their number the same. 
 
 So of any mathematical truth, if it is once brought clearly 
 to consciousness, its universality is at once felt. Is it not 
 a sin that pupils should be taught arithmetic for years, 
 without ever having been made conscious of the necessary 
 validity of the rules and principles they constantly use ? 
 Daily experience shows that pupils may finish arithmetic 
 in the high school without having grasped the true mean- 
 ing of even so simple a process as subtraction. Thus, if a 
 pupil liolds 8 sticks in one hand and 3 in the other, he 
 will usually stand in confusion, if asked to show with the 
 objects how many more there are in one hand than in the 
 other. It is not necessary to wait until the pupil can per- 
 form algebraic and geometric demonstrations of general 
 mathematical truths before giving him any insight into 
 them ; but this should be done through the presentation of 
 one or more individual illustrations, when there is first 
 need of using the generalization. 
 
 § 36. Next to mathematical general conceptions come 
 those having to do with external nature. With mathemat- 
 ics all is exact and limited ; with nature, on the contrary, 
 inexactness and uncertain extension prevail. The notion 
 triangle may easily be defined with exactness ; not so the 
 notion horse. But here as everywhere, we must begin with 
 the known individual. In natural history, individual ob- 
 jects must be carefully compared, their likenesses and 
 differences noted, the accidental distinguished from the 
 apparently essential, in order that the general notions may 
 gain as much clearness and universality as the age and 
 ability of the pupils permit. So in geography a child's 
 conception of a mountain, a river, a lake, an ocean, should 
 be based upon what he has seen, first in nature about him, 
 
78 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 and then in pictorial representations. In physics, experi- 
 ment should lead to the development of physical laws. 
 Here we have, as in mathematics, an a priori element; i.e., 
 the necessary belief of the mind in the uniformity of causa- 
 tion. Like causes always produce like effects, provided the 
 conditions do not vary. If, therefore, the principle of 
 the siphon is grasped in an individual case, it will be 
 understood in any other like case. 
 
 § 37. To develop true general notions concerning politi- 
 cal or social or ethical affairs is far more difficult than to 
 do so in the realms of mathematics and the physical uni- 
 verse ; first, because the senses cannot be appealed to, 
 and, second, because of the infinitely more complex and 
 entangling conditions. Compare such notions as state, na- 
 tionality/, society/, justice, legal right, moral good, with those 
 of triangle, division of a fraction, mountain, lever. The com- 
 plexity of the former is in sharp contrast to the relative 
 simplicity of the latter. Instruction must, however, return 
 as ever to the individual embodiments of these ideas ; for 
 it is the universal law of all correct instruction that the 
 general must be preceded by the particular, for there is no 
 other way in which it can be understood. By this state- 
 ment is not meant that pedagogical device is limited to one 
 procedure. It may be that a mind can best be aroused by 
 having some startling generalization hurled at it, which, 
 however, can only be understood through much particulari- 
 zation. Many good text-books introduce a topic by stating 
 some broad general truth or law concerning itj- but no good 
 text-book assumes that the statement of a wide-reaching 
 law is sufficient to explain and establish it. For example, 
 Avery's " Elements of Natural Philosophy " begins al- 
 most every topic with a definition, which is the expression 
 of a general notion. Thus, at the head of the chapter on 
 
FBOM INDIVIDUAL TO GENERAL NOTIONS. 79 
 
 machines is this : " What is a Machine ? A machine is a 
 contrivance by means of which the power can be applied to 
 the resistance more advantageously.''^ Then follows a dis- 
 cussion of what is contained in this definition. ' 
 
 It matters not, therefore, whether one's general course is 
 inductive or deductive ; this will depend largely upon the 
 subject, and the mental maturity of those who are to pursue 
 it. But one thing is sure, there will never be any clear 
 grasping of the significance of a general conception, until 
 it has been tested at least, by individuals which are ranged 
 under it. 
 1^ For the reason, then, that we first grasp the general 
 through the particular, all ethical instruction should pro- 
 ceed from individual cases of action involving a moral con- 
 tent. Hence, it does not suffice to preach in school, except 
 from the text of an actual event. Children can best get 
 the first points of crystallization for moral truths from 
 stories involving a moral content. Here the emotions are 
 not unduly aroused, as they are likely to be where the 
 action is one that touches them personally, so that the 
 irrational nature of wrong action appeals to the under- 
 standing as well as to feeling. History fulfills its noblest 
 mission to the race on account of its ethical content and of 
 the individual nature of the presentation. Every deed of 
 heroism, of benevolence, of charity, of patriotism, is a con- 
 crete embodiment of a precious virtue ; while every mean, 
 cowardly, dastardly act is an individual protest against 
 meanness, cowardice, or villainy. We can only continue 
 the deposit about these starting points, until at last the 
 soul is strong in itself to stand against temptation. 
 
 § 38. Most difficult of all is the formation of true 
 general conceptions^ in the realm of aesthetic and religious 
 truth. Here, again, we can but lay the beginnings of cor- 
 
80 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 rect ideas, and, as before, only by starting with individual 
 illustrations. Call attention to the beauty in the flower, 
 the tree, the bird, the landscape, the heavens. Awaken 
 the first love of the beautiful in art by contrasting grace 
 and beauty with ungainliness and ugliness. Teach rever- 
 ence for age, for authority, for law, for the name of God. 
 Awaken the feelings of love and thankfulness, in return 
 for love and benefits. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RETURN FROM GENERAL TO INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 
 
 § 39. We have thus far considered two grand stages of 
 rational methodology ; viz., the apperception, or assimilation 
 of individual notions (preparation and presentation), and 
 the transition from individual to general notions. One 
 more equally important stage remains. This is the return 
 from general to individual notions, or the application of 
 derived universals to new particulars. Says Lange ( Ueber 
 Appercejjtion, p. 129), "We have fallen from one extreme 
 to the other : whereas, formerly a hard and lifeless instruc- 
 tion laid the chief emphasis upon the memorizing of the 
 text, it is the custom o*f our times largely to neglect the 
 application of that which is learned; consequently, the 
 ever-repeated complaint, that though our youth indeed 
 know a great deal, they can do but little, that they possess 
 indeed knowledge, but little capacity and readiness to act, 
 and that upon leaving school, the knowledge largely dis- 
 appears. Where drill and application are lacking, where a 
 line of thought is developed, but in complete isolation from 
 related thought, the capacity of applying this knowledge 
 to its natural and appropriate field is soon lost, no matter 
 how clear the original thought may have been." Pestalozzi 
 goes even so far as to say (" How Gertrude," etc., XII.), "It 
 is perhaps the most frightful gift which an evil genius makes 
 to his age : knowledge without capacity to do." 
 
 Why this stage of right method is so necessary and 
 
 81 
 
82 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 what are its essential features, will appear in tlie following 
 sections. 
 
 § 40. Kant stated a profound and many-sided truth 
 when he said that notions without perceptions are blind, 
 that they are mere empty forms. The man whose whole 
 knowledge consists of abstractions has indeed a barren 
 mind. He is able to deal in nothing but glittering gener- 
 alities, so that his thinking pertains but slightly to the 
 practical affairs of the world, in which alone man's destiny 
 can be wrought out. Nor should we imagine that such 
 thought marks more than an elementary stage of mind. 
 Philology shows that language did not begin with the con- 
 crete and gradually extend to the abstract, but that it began 
 with the vague, the general, the indefinite; as, with the 
 verb, which represents no thing, but an action or a state, 
 and with the pronoun as a verb-suffix, not indeed to repre- 
 sent a noun, but to manifest a relation between the speaker 
 and the object of thought. 
 
 There must he a rich content of knowledge, as well as the 
 generalizations derived from a few pay'ticulars. This can 
 be obtained only by long and persistent application of 
 abstractions — a rule in arithmetic or grammar, for in- 
 stance — to appropriate fields of new particulars. It will 
 not suffice to limit the study of differentiation to the indi- 
 vidual notions from which the general was derived. Should 
 a botanist know only the common characteristics of trees, 
 the sight of a given tree could arouse no such wealth of 
 conception as is supposed in the case quoted from Dr. 
 Harris. Should he know only the individual characteris- 
 tics of one tree, his experience of trees would still be 
 meager and barren. If, then, knowledge is to have a full, 
 rich content, as well as universality, the general truth 
 gained must be perpetually enriched and re-enforced by 
 application to new particulars. 
 
FROM GENERAL TO INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 83 
 
 § 41. There is need of a wide and persistent application 
 of general truths, in order that they may become a perma- 
 nent acquisition to the child. A principle in arithmetic, 
 for example, even though fairly grasped by the pupil, will 
 soon fade from his mind if extended application has not 
 impressed it there. The need of doing this has usually 
 been better recognized in arithmetic than in any other 
 department of common school study. The fault of thought- 
 less teaching in this branch has heretofore been, not so 
 much a lack of application, as failure to teach the pupils 
 to see the universality of the rules and principles which they 
 were using. The fact that the pupils are commonly drilled 
 for a long time in the application of arithmetical rules, 
 accounts in some measure for the lasting interest which 
 teachers are able to awaken in this subject. 
 
 That pupils remember these rules well is, therefore, not 
 surprising, for in this branch they are better drilled in the 
 application of principles than in any other. If this efficient 
 drill upon new problems could be preceded by a derivation 
 of general principles from particular cases, our instruction 
 in this branch would be ideally correct. Furthermore, not 
 only do pupils soon forget an unapplied generalization, but 
 they can make it truly serviceable only by constant use. 
 Practice makes perfect. 
 
 ? 42. It is needful to practice a wide application of 
 general truths, on account of the bearing of such practice 
 upon all the affairs of life. The mind must be trained to 
 distinguish the essential from the non-essential, the valid 
 from the accidental or false, at all times and under all cir- 
 cumstances. Man is constantly required to decide impor- 
 tant questions which are complicated by details. The 
 judge upon thie bench must see the truth through a mass of 
 conflicting testimony; the counsel before the bar must 
 
84 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 detect the weak points in liis opponent's case, however 
 covered by misleading evidence or argument ; the teacher 
 must be able to see the most effective means of governing 
 his school, or discover the straightest path to the pupil's 
 understanding; the voter should be able to judge intelli- 
 gently of the probable effect of any proposed political 
 measure, however confusing and contradictory the argu- 
 ments of politicians may be ; the merchant, the manufac- 
 turer, and especially the speculator, needs the ability to 
 weigh calmly the great factors, supply and demand, and com- 
 petition, in the face of confusing but non-determining con- 
 ditions. So in all departments of life, social, political, 
 economical, the successful man, be he farmer or warrior, 
 merchant or teacher, is the one whose training enables him 
 under all circumstances to recognize the important and 
 enduring, however much they may be complicated with the 
 accidental and non-essential. Such insight is not gained 
 by the learning of individual facts, or by the memorizing 
 of universal truths, but only by a constant, efficient applica- 
 tion to a wide field of particulars, of general laws which 
 have been consciously derived from individual cases. 
 
 § 43. Again, this perpetual return from the general to 
 the particular is the most effective means for the co-ordina- 
 tion of knowledge. It is too much the tendency of the 
 schools to impart knowledge in parallel lines having little 
 or no vital connection. For example, the studies whose 
 common end is knowledge of the mother-tongue, such as 
 reading, writing, spelling, composition, punctuation, gram- 
 mar, rhetoric, are usually taught as separate and unrelated 
 branches of learning. When related studies are taught in 
 this way, there must necessarily be great waste in the 
 labor of learning, and great deficiency in the ready use of 
 what is learned. To a greater or less degree, all knowledge 
 
FROM GENERAL TO INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 85 
 
 is related, all wisdom has a bearing upon every great enter- 
 prise of life. To bring the mind to the consciousness of 
 this unity of knowledge is one of the great functions of the 
 school. The world is not so much surprised as grieved, 
 however, when moral maxims appear to have little bearing 
 on conduct, when the forms of religion lack the content of 
 daily right living, when book-crammed brains cannot reduce 
 their memorized theories to concrete practice. The most 
 effective means for this desirable co-ordination of the knowl- 
 edge at the pupil's command, aside from radical changes in 
 the manner of presenting studies, is the thorough-going 
 application of those generalizations at which the pupil has 
 arrived, to all fields of 'particulars lying within his compass 
 of thought. 
 
 § 44. With the foregoing exposition of the necessary 
 stages of all right methods in mind, it is not difficult to 
 discover where the prevailing treatment of various school 
 studies has departed from correct pedagogical practice. 
 The trinity of instruction embraces : (1) the apperception 
 or assimilation of individual notions ; (2) the transition 
 from the individual to the general (classes, rules, principles, 
 maxims, etc.) ; (3) the return from the general notion to 
 new fields of particulars. As we have seen, the fault in 
 arithmetical instruction has been, not a lack of application, 
 but a failure consciously to take the second step ; viz., to 
 make the transition from given individual numerical rela- 
 tions to a clear apprehension of the general principles 
 involved. For example, though a general rule is given for 
 division, pupils are rarely led even once to perceive clearly 
 what is involved in such problems as the following : divide 
 10 apples equally among 5 boys ; and, having 10 apples, 
 to how many boys can I give 2 apples each ? In grammar, 
 however, all of the vital points in instruction have been 
 
86 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 Ignored to a greater or less degree. There has been, 
 in our modern standard grammars, very little attempt to 
 grasp vividly even individual facts of language, almost no 
 attempt to develop general principles from individual illus- 
 trations, and but meager and formal application of general 
 laws to new particulars. Each subject is usually intro- 
 duced by an underived definition, which is illustrated by a 
 single sentence, and applied to a few disjointed, often 
 meaningless, sentences. Thus, for illustration, we find such 
 treatment as the following : " Verbs are divided, according to 
 their use, into transitive and intransitive. A transitive verb 
 receives or requires an object to complete its meaning. 
 Example. — The servant opened the Uoor. What walls can 
 guard me, or what shades can hide [me] ? — Pope. An 
 intransitive verb neither receives nor requires an object to 
 complete its meaning. Example. — The sun rises. The 
 horse runs.''^ We have for application such sentences as 
 the following : Anna loves her mother, The golden gates 
 open, The moon silvers the distant hills, Mary has found 
 her ring, Eleanor writes poetry, The snow melts, etc. 
 
 What wonder that countless children have thought gram- 
 mar " dry," when they have begun with abstractions whose 
 full meaning they were never taught to see, and whose 
 application, of the most formal kind, was to meager 
 amounts of matter possessing often neither coherency nor 
 inherent value ? 
 
 We have been trying to discover what the essential ele- 
 ments of a good method are. If one or more of these 
 elements are ignored or slighted, the method is pedagogically 
 unsound, and its results will be unsatisfactory, whether the 
 fault be in the text-book, or in the teacher, or in both. But if 
 the essentials of right methods are observed, there may be 
 almost infinite variety of device in teaching and reciting 
 
FROM GENERAL TO INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS. 87 
 
 the lesson, without vitiating the results. This is the true 
 scope for the individuality of the teacher and the text- 
 book, but neither teacher nor book can ignore the essential 
 forms of true methods without encountering partial or 
 total failure. , 
 
 Until recently, formalism governed our teaching of gram- 
 mar. The recitation of rules which had lost, or perhaps 
 never had, content ; the endless repetition of forms value- 
 less for thought ; and the ceaseless and formal iteration of 
 the properties of the parts of speech in parsing, long after 
 the last ripple of thought or interest had faded away, — 
 led finally to a revolt which is almost as irrational as that 
 from which it would fly. In a vast number of schools, 
 grammar proper has disappeared, and in its place has come 
 the "language lesson." This consists chiefly in practice 
 upon the art of composing, and is usually accompanied 
 with some formal instruction upon such grammatical forms 
 as appear in writing. This is well enough in the element- 
 ary grades, but it is not grammar; it opens the mind to 
 none of the great lines of thought to which grammar is the 
 gateway, — logic, rhetoric, psychology, philosophy. 
 
 In geography and history the case is not greatly different. 
 Text-books in geography often begin with abstract defini- 
 tions, of which the child can have little or no apprehension. 
 Thus, " The earth is the planet on which we live." Even 
 with the simpler notions, such as mountain, river, plain, 
 lake, island, cape, little effort is made to enable the child 
 to arrive at proper conceptions, or even to obtain any 
 conceptions at, all. But perhaps the most serious fault of 
 the current methods of teaching geography is, that the 
 child is not taught to look within and beyond the individ- 
 ual facts he learns. The subject remains in its individual- 
 ized stage. There is no passing from individual to general 
 
88 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 notions, no application of geographical principles to new 
 particulars. For this reason, no geographical fact appears 
 to have more than a momentary and accidental relation to 
 any other. Under such treatment, geography . becomes a 
 chaos of unrelated facts, having no progress, no develop- 
 ment, no rational unification, no end. Facts are learned 
 only to be forgotten, or to lie in the soul isolated and 
 devoid of significance. Eitter and Guyot never subject 
 geography to such irrational treatment, but then their 
 books are not popular. They demand some thought on the 
 part of the teacher, and thought is the last thing which 
 the inexperienced or untrained teacher is able or willing to 
 give. ^ CW- 
 
 History, like geography, records a wilderness of facts. 
 If our analysis of the essentials of right methods is correct, 
 these facts should be grouped, not only so that they may 
 be remembered, but so that the lessons they should teach 
 may appear in the consciousness of the learner. This is 
 true not alone of the ethical lessons with which history 
 always abounds, but also of the immediate ends for which 
 men struggle. When the objective point for which a war, 
 a campaign, or a battle is conducted is once understood, it 
 becomes a beacon-light by which the meaning of every 
 movement may be examined. Historical facts are then 
 vitally related and easily remembered. But to require an 
 unthinking memorizing of facts, to impart a knowledge 
 whose rational connection and significance depends upon 
 accident, and whose application never appears, is to pursue 
 a method as unpedagogical as it is easy. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 METHOD-WHOLES. 
 
 § 45. A METHOD of teacliing which deals solely or chiefly 
 with individual facts, without regard to their logical inter- 
 dependence and content, would naturally need to take no 
 thought about the most efficient subdivision of the matter 
 to be learned, since one halting-place would be as good as 
 another. Thus, a certain number of words in spelling, a 
 given number of places in a map-lesson in geography, a 
 convenient number of pages in history would constitute the 
 lesson. Only considerations of the time at disposal and the 
 age of the pupils would determine these purely arbitrary 
 subdivisions. With a rational view of the function of 
 instruction and the necessary form of right methods, quite 
 another principle of subdivision must be observed. In 
 accordance with this idea, individual facts must be made to 
 yield their rational content in the form of definitions, riileSj 
 'principles, maxims, etc., ivhich must in turn have a wide 
 application to the whole field of new individual facts to ivhich 
 they are appropriate. It is evident, therefore, that there mitst 
 he a suhdivisioji of the matter of instruction for every impor- 
 tant general notion ivhich is to be derived and applied. Thus, 
 each important definition or rule of mathematics or gram- 
 mar should be treated by itself in derivation or develop- 
 ment from individual facts, and in its appropriate applica- 
 tion. Here the proper subdivision is almost a matter of 
 
90 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 course, but it is more difficult in the departments of history, 
 geography, and natural history, where apparent progress is 
 possible without any reflection whatever. In mathematics 
 and grammar a separate division or method-whole can 
 usually be treated every day ; but in the other departments 
 named, a method-whole will frequently occupy the time of 
 the class for several days. For example, Grant's Chatta- 
 nooga Campaign may well be treated as a whole, as the 
 working out of a single conception, yet it would ordinarily 
 need more than a single recitation to complete the subject. 
 In mathematical and physical geography, the subdivisions 
 are as plainly marked as in mathematics and grammar : but 
 political geography is in special danger of aimless and use- 
 less subdivision. Each group of political facts should be 
 viewed as the manifestation of some idea, the result of 
 some cause, social, physical, or economical; for example, 
 the rise of great cities, the development of manufacturing 
 industries, the distribution of population, the prevalence of 
 staple crops, the growth of facilities for transportation. 
 If a section of country is to be studied, its rivers, moun- 
 tains, towns, lines of communications, inhabitants, furnish 
 topics for the individual facts ; a drawing of the whole 
 brings the manifold into a unity ; while drawings from 
 memory, the location of important points, imaginary jour- 
 neys from place to place, descriptions of people, employ- 
 ments, etc., furnish ample application. The younger the 
 children are, the smaller must the subdivisions be. Only 
 one caution needs to be given. Care must be taken not to 
 atomize the instruction. / The presupposition of brains on 
 the part of the children must always be made, for they 
 come to a thousand conclusions and take a thousand steps 
 in thinking, which the teacher need not painfully point out. 
 The teacher is needed for those steps which the children 
 
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS. 91 
 
 cannot take alone, the derivations and applications which 
 they would not or could not make ; consequently, instruc- 
 tion should deliberately plan for these greater matters of 
 education, leaving the smaller ones to an awakened sponta- 
 neity of the pupil, or to incidental instruction. / With these 
 general remarks on the subdivision of the matter of in- 
 struction into method-wholes, the subject may be deferred 
 until the practical illustrations are reached. 
 
 RELATION OF SO-CALLED " METHODS " TO THE ESSENTIAL 
 
 FORMS. 
 
 § 46. That the relation of the essential forms of instruc- 
 tion, as exhibited in this volume, to what are usually known 
 as "methods" of teaching may clearly appear, a brief 
 analysis of the latter will now be given. Methods of 
 imparting knowledge may be considered from three stand- 
 points : (1) the learner, (2) the matter taught, and (3) the 
 teacher. 
 
 1. Methods with regard to the learner. — Nothing can 
 be learned, except as it is apprehended under the forms 
 of thought ; of these, logic exhibits three : (1) the notion, 
 (2) the judgment, (3) the syllogism. Knowledge can there- 
 fore be imparted in the form of explication, predication, or 
 demonstration. 
 
 (a) The forms of explication. — Notions, as the synthe- 
 sized characteristics of things, form the elements of thought 
 and, hence, of knowledge. The notion of a thing is con- 
 veyed in two ways; (1) by observation, and (2) by the 
 words. The first gives the objective, or observation; the 
 second, the defining method. Observation evidently has to 
 do with the first formal stage of instruction ; viz., the 
 apprehension of the individual notion. Definition is the 
 
92 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 summary of the second stage ; viz., the transition to 
 the general noti:n. 
 
 (h) The form of predication. — When two or more notions 
 are brought into relation through the copula, we have the 
 expression of the judgment, or a predication. When predi- 
 cation is made without regard to progress in time, we have 
 the descriptive method: this pertains to the first stage of 
 instruction, in which new facts are learned. When the 
 predication pertains to that which is becoming, or progress- 
 ing in time, we have the genetic form of instruction : this 
 may in turn be progressive or regressive, according as the 
 predication takes the direction of the development or the 
 reverse. History, for instance, may be regarded as a de- 
 velopment in time, in which the events of one period appear 
 as the cause of those of later periods. Like the descriptive 
 predication, the genetic belongs to the first stage of instruc- 
 tion, — the imparting of information. 
 
 (c) The form of demonstration. — If two or more judg- 
 ments are so related that a new judgment follows, the 
 syllogism arises. A demonstration must proceed from a 
 universal to a particular, or the reverse. The first gives 
 the deductive proof; the second, the inductive. Induction 
 answers especially to the second grand stage of instruction, 
 for it is the business of induction to derive a universal 
 truth from given particulars. Deduction corresponds most 
 closely to the stage of application, or the return from 
 universals to new particulars. 
 
 2. Methods with regard to the thing learned. — An 
 object of knowledge is analogous to the notion with its 
 characteristics : it consists of a whole and its parts. One 
 may begin with the whole and proceed to its parts, or one 
 may begin with the parts and proceed to the whole. Thus, 
 in geography, the earth itself, or the geographical facts in 
 
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS. 93 
 
 the neighborhood, may be the starting-point. The method 
 which begins with the whole and proceeds to the parts is 
 analytical ; that which begins with separate facts and works 
 toward the total is synthetical. The essential forms of 
 right methods may be observed with either of these pro- 
 cesses ; e.g., it is indifferent, so far as observation of the 
 essentials of right methods is concerned, whether grammar 
 is begun with the senteriffe or with the woi'd, whether gram- 
 mar is taught analytically or synthetically. It goes without 
 saying, that these two methods of treating a subject may be 
 combined. 
 
 3. Methods with regard to the teacher. — Aside from the 
 first two considerations, the communication of knowledge 
 is realized (1) through the monologue on the part of the 
 teacher, or (2) through the dialogue, in which the question 
 is an important factor. The monologue is important in 
 imparting information, in the first stage ; and the dialogue 
 (catechetical, Socratic, developing method), in prepar'ation 
 for apperception, in developing the universal from the 
 particular, and in applying it to other particulars.^ 
 
 1 Compare Vogel, Encyclopedx der Padagogik, pp. 67-70. 
 
PART III. 
 PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 § 47. That the young teacher may have a few illustra- 
 tions of the practical workings of the ideas presented in 
 this volume, the following working models are offered. 
 All that is claimed for them is, conformity to the essential 
 stages of a correct method; viz., a conscious effort to 
 observe : (1) the apperception of new facts, in pi^eparation 
 and presentation; (2) the transition from individual to 
 general notions, whether the latter appear as definitions, 
 rules, principles, or moral maxims ; and (3) the application 
 of these general truths to concrete facts, i.e., the return 
 from universals to particulars. The illustrations cover all 
 the studies of the common school curriculum, and often 
 several grades of work in each. For many of the illustra- 
 tions the author is more or less indebted to others, notably 
 to Professor W. Rein, of the university of Jena, and to 
 Dr. O. Frick, director of the Frankeschen Stiftungen, in 
 Halle. 
 
 LiANGUAGE. 
 
 § 48. Oral language-lesson for the first grade. 
 
 SUBJECT-MATTER.— THE WREN AND THE BEAR. 
 I. 
 
 {a) One summer's day, a bear and a wolf took a walk in the 
 woods together. The bear heard a beautiful song from a bird, 
 and said, ''Brother Wolf, what kind of a bird is it that sings so 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 95 
 
 jfinely ? " — ' That is the king of birds," said the wolf, " and before 
 him we must bow." It was the wren, which is called the king of 
 the hedge. Then said the bear, "If that is so, I should like to 
 see his kingly palace; come, show me the way to it." — "That 
 won't do," said the wolf : " you must wait until the queen comes." 
 (6) Soon the king and queen came, bringing food in their bills 
 to feed their children, the little wrens. The bear wanted to 
 follow them at once, but the wolf held him back by the sleeve, 
 and said, "You must wait until the king and queen are gone." 
 Then the bear and the wolf noticed the hole where the nest was, 
 and went off. 
 
 (c) But the bear could not rest until he had seen the palace, 
 and after a short time went back to the nest and looked in. The 
 king and the queen had flown away. He looked into the nest, 
 but saw nothing except five or six young birds. "Is that the 
 kingly palace ? " cried the bear. " That is a pretty palace ! You 
 are no king's children, you are nothing but common children." 
 But when the young birds heard this, they were very angry, and 
 cried out, "No, we are not common children, our father is king, 
 and our mother is queen. You shall be sorry for what you have 
 said, Mr. Bear ! " 
 
 (d) The bear and the wolf began to be afraid, and hurried 
 back to their dens. The young birds screamed and scolded until 
 their parents came again, bringing them more food. Then they 
 said, " Even if we have to starve, we will not touch so much as a 
 fly's leg until you have shown the bear that we are not common 
 children. He has been here and has insulted us." 
 
 (e) Then said the old king, "Don't worry, I will soon settle 
 that matter." Then he and the queen flew to the bear's den, and 
 shouted into the hole, "You old growling bear, why have you 
 abused my children ? You shall be soiTy for that, for I declare 
 war against you." Then the war was declared, and the bear 
 called together all four-footed animals to aid him, — the ox, the 
 donkey, the deer, the wolf, and all others to be found in the 
 world. The king called together all the animals which fly in 
 the air ; not only all the birds, big and little, but all flies and 
 gnats and bees and hornets. 
 
THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 (a) When the war was about to begin, the king sent out his 
 spies to find out who the general of the army was. The gnat, 
 who was the slyest of all, flew into the woods where the bear and 
 his friends were gathered, and lit on the under side of a leaf of 
 the tree under which the matter was to be settled. The bear 
 stood up, called out the fox, and said, " Fox, you are the most 
 cunning of all animals, you shall be our general and lead us." — 
 " All right," said the fox, ** but what sort of signs shall we agree 
 upon?" Nobody knew. Finally the fox said, "I have a fine, 
 long, bushy tail ; it looks like a fine red plume of feathers. 
 When I hold it up, then everything is well, and you must march 
 forward ; but if I let it hang down, then run for your lives." 
 When the gnat heard this, she fled at once to the king, and told 
 him all about it. 
 
 (b) At daybreak, when the battle was to begin, the four-footed 
 animals rushed to the place with such fury that the earth trembled. 
 The king came also with his army, through the air. They whizzed 
 and screamed and buzzed until it was dreadful to hear them. 
 But the king sent for the hornet and told him to fly down, settle 
 on the under side of the fox's tail, and sting with all his might. 
 When the fox got the first sting, he could not help jumping, but 
 he bore the pain, and kept his tail up. At the second sting he 
 had to let his tail drop for an instant; at the third sting he 
 could stand it no longer, but dropped his tail between his legs 
 and screamed with pain. When the animals saw this, they 
 thought everj'thing was lost, and began to run, every one to his 
 den. The birds had won the battle. 
 
 in. 
 
 Then the king and queen flew back to their children, and cried, 
 " Children, be happy, eat and drink, for we have won the victory." 
 But the young ones said, " We will not yet eat. The bear must 
 first come before the nest and beg pardon, and say that we are 
 kingly children." Then the king flew to tlie bear's den, and said, 
 " You old, groM^ling bear, you must go to my nest and ask pardon, 
 and say that my children are kingly children, or you will have 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 97 
 
 every rib in your body broken." The bear crept to tlie nest in 
 fear, and begged for pardon. The young birds were now satis- 
 fied. They came together, ate and drank, and had a jolly time 
 till late into the night. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 The entire story is considered a method-whole, but is subdivided 
 for convenience of preimration and x>resentation, and of repetition 
 by the children. 
 
 (^)i STAGE OF APPERCEPTION. 
 I. 
 
 (1) Preparation for Section I. — We have learned about the 
 wolf and the seven kids, also about the wolf and the fox. Per- 
 haps 3'ou have seen a bear? (Dancing bear, picture.) The 
 wren, or the king of the hedge, is one of the smallest of birds. 
 A king lives in a castle. (Pictures.) What is the castle of the 
 hedge king? Who obeys him? (Animals.) Are they always 
 peaceful? What do they do sometimes? Who has seen this? 
 (Fights between dogs, between cat and dog, etc.) Leaders, 
 parties, war, victoiy. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Teacher tells the story in sections to 
 "bees and hornets," pausing at the end of each subdivision, a, 6, 
 c, d, and e, to have the story repeated by the children. 
 
 II. 
 
 (1) Preparation for Section II. — Now, there were two 
 armies who were going to have a battle. What animals were on 
 one side ? What on the other ? What kind of weapons did they 
 have ? Was each animal allowed to do whatever he wanted to ? 
 Who gave the orders for one side? For the other? General, 
 scout, battle. Which side do you think will win ? 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Story in sections a and b, to "the birds 
 had won the battle." Children repeat as before. 
 
 ' To avoid needless repetition, let it be understood tliat the capital letter A 
 stands for the stage of apperception ; B, for the transition from the individual to 
 the general notion ; and C, for the stage of application, or the return from general 
 notions (definitions, rules, principles, maxims, etc.) to new individual notions. 
 
98 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 in. 
 
 (1) Preparation for Section III. — The bear had lost the 
 battle. Do you suppose the young birds were entirely satisfied ? 
 Why not ? What ought the bear to do yet? 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Story to the end, with repetition of the 
 various sections until all the children can repeat the whole story in 
 good language. This will require several recitations of twenty 
 minutes each. 
 
 (By STAGE OF ELABORATION. 
 
 Transition from pai'ticalars to generals. 
 
 (3) Derivation of notional content, (In this case moral 
 maxims.) 
 
 The bear was very curious. He wanted to see what he sup- 
 posed would be the castle of the king's children. But he judged 
 according to appearances. Do appearances ever deceive? (In- 
 stances by the children.) Did he speak properly to the young 
 birds, even if they had been what the bear supposed? He 
 insulted them. Was that right ? What did the fox call the wolf ? 
 (See Grimm's story of "The Fox and the Wolf.") A glutton. 
 Was this an insult ? Should children call names ? Did the 
 young birds put up with everything ? What did they do ? 
 
 Formulation of Maxims. — (1) Do not judge according to 
 appearances. (2) Insult no one. (3) Guard your good name. 
 (4) Do not he over curious. 
 
 (C)i STAGE OF APPLICATION. 
 
 (4) Application — Examples of children who are too curious. 
 If any one is poorly clothed, what may one not say at once? 
 Should he be insulted ? If any one insults you, how shall you 
 act? Examples. 
 
 1 See note at foot of page 83. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 99 
 
 § 49. Oi'al language-lesson for the second or third grade. 
 
 THE SHIPWRECK. ^ 
 
 Adapted from ** Robinson Crnsoe^ 
 
 They had sailed several weeks, and Robinson had long since 
 forgotten his intention to return home. Suddenly there arose a 
 second storm, much more fearful than the first. The ship was 
 tossed about on the sea like a nutshell, and the waves 'broke over 
 the deck every minute. Then Robinson became dreadfully 
 frightened, and thought every instant to find his death in the 
 waves. 
 
 The storm lasted for several hours. All at once Robinson felt 
 a powerful shock. The ship had struck upon the rocks. At that 
 instant the sailors cried out, " The ship has sprung a leak ! " 
 
 The water rushed into the si\\\). Everybody cried for help. 
 Each thought only of saving his own life. A boat was lowered 
 into the sea at once, and all sprang in. They had not gone far 
 from the ship, when a mighty wave upset the boat, and swallowed 
 up all the men. 
 
 Robinson was also thrown into the sea by the wave, but he 
 succeeded in rising to the surface for an instant ; in the next he 
 was again under water. Soon a wave lifted him up again, and 
 he was able to keep his head and breast out of the water for a 
 short time. He noticed that he was not far from land. Scarcely 
 had he spied the shore when a wave dashed him so violently 
 against a rock that he believed liis last moment had arrived. 
 But he had presence of mind enough to cling to the rock with his 
 arms. This saved him; for, soon a returning wave dashed over 
 him, and would have carried him away, had he not held fast. 
 Now he clambered up the shore, but his strength was so far gone 
 that he fainted. 
 
 For a time he lay unconscious. As he opened his eyes, his 
 first words were, " Where am I ? " He looked about for the men 
 who had been with him in the boat, but nothing was to be seen 
 of them. They were drowned in the sea, and he alone had re- 
 mained alive. He fell upon his knees and tlianked God for his 
 
100 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 (Elaborate outline by a student of Illinois State Normal University.) 
 
 Determine what subdivisions, if any, are needed. — This 
 section might be subdivided into two parts, the first being a 
 description of tlie shipwreck as a whole (. . . " and swallowed up 
 all the men ") , the second relating the individual event concern- 
 ing Robinson's wonderful rescue (. . . "thanked God for his 
 rescue"). 
 
 The idea to be developed out of the first part would be the 
 fearfulness of a storm at sea ; that of the second, the necessity of 
 keeping his presence of mind in danger. But as it is a second 
 storm, it may be supposed that something about such a calamity 
 has been said in the first section ; moreover, the two ideas to be 
 brought out are so nearly related that the entire section can be 
 taken as o?ie method-whole. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Teacher : We have had many stories that 
 tell us about life on the land or the continent; this time we 
 may see, therefore, how things look on water, and what may 
 happen when we are there. — Who has ever seen a large river or 
 a lake ? Have you ever been in a ship there ? Yes ; Mississippi, 
 Lake Michigan, etc. How is a boat moved? Oars, sails, steam. 
 Teacher mentions that the use of steam was not known in 
 former times. Is a voyage on water pleasant, or not? O, yes. 
 But rivers and lakes are not all the water we have. Who knows 
 whither the Mississippi is flowing? The St. Lawi*ence? Any 
 river? Why does the sea not overflow? Nobody. Teacher: 
 This seems strange, and I myself studied about that when a boy ; 
 finally I found it out, and I'll tell you about it at some other 
 time, if nobody anticipates me. Do you believe there are any 
 ships on the sea? How many? Pupils laughing. Do you think 
 they are as large as those on rivers or lakes ? Who has ever seen 
 one ? Teacher presents a picture of an ocean steamer and of a 
 large sail vessel. Did you ever hear of Europe ? O, yes ; son 
 of an immigrant. How do immigrants come from there, or how 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. lOJ 
 
 would you get there ? Why ? Do you know how the Chinamen 
 come to this country ? The sea they have to cross is even much 
 larger than that between America and Europe. Do you suppose 
 you could see the shore at any time when at sea? Could the 
 voyage be made in a shorter or longer time before the use of 
 steam-power ? What power only was then used to move these 
 large vessels ? 
 
 You told me a while ago that traveling on water is very 
 pleasant Can you think of a case where it would not be so ? 
 Wind, sweeping away whole towns. What effect will it have 
 upon the water ? Upon the ship ? Tossing. How if the shore 
 or some shallow place were near? What of the ship and the 
 passengers ? Do you think such a case may be foreseen ? Can 
 the storai be avoided ? Can any preparation be made to avoid 
 danger ? Did you ever see a small boat hung on the side of a 
 largo vessel? What for? A?is. — I thought it was for fishing 
 or bathing. Not quite ; they are safety-boats ; a large sea vessel 
 has several of them, perhaps a dozen. 
 
 Would you now have courage enough to sail in such a vessel 
 for 51 far country? A sailor's boy, who could not keep his 
 seat quietly, "I should, I should!" You, boys? " O, yes." 
 You, girls? (Doubts.) 
 
 (2) Presentation. — (a) Relate the story, being careful in the 
 text. Stop at the point where the individual story begins. Let 
 the pupils repeat thus far; coiTect false conceptions. Second 
 part in the same way. 
 
 (b) Do not interrupt the pupil at every moment ; let him have 
 " his talk," and see what his conception of the matter is. 
 
 (c) Use correct and logical language, in repetition as ivell as 
 the first time, or the pupils will correct you. 
 
 {d) Let the whole section be related, finally the whole story. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Ask questions "which will bring out the general truth 
 you wish to teach. — Had this ship any provisions for the saving 
 of life in time of danger ? How do you know it ? A safety-boat 
 was lowered. How do you think the passengers felt in that 
 
102 THE •ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 dreadful moment? Anguish. Do you suppose this passage from 
 the sinking ship into the boat took place in goed order? No, 
 disorder. Why? Everybody cried for help, thought only of 
 saving his owji life. Upon what, then, can you not always rely in 
 such a calamity? Upon the help of others. Upon whom, there- 
 fore, would you have to rely? In my own powers. Would you 
 not think at all to help others ? (Indecision.) Teacher : There are 
 examples of persons who have done so, and it would be well for 
 you to imitate them, so far as you can. Yet nobody will reproach 
 you when you think of saving yourself, too. 
 
 Could Robinson do anything for the men in the boat when this 
 was upset by the wave ? No. Why? No possibility ; all swallowed 
 up. How would you call a man that thinks only about his own 
 safety, though he could also do something for others ? Selfish. 
 Was Robinson selfish ? 
 
 Let us see quite clearly how Robinson came to save his life 
 when all others were swallowed up. What did he do when the 
 wave brought him up again? Raised head, spied the shore. 
 Would all persons in such a moment recognize what was before 
 them ? Why not ? Did Robinson recognize the shore ? Yes, he 
 noticed it. Was he not in anguish at all ? Yes ; but not so far as 
 to be wholly overcome by it. Now let's see what further hap- 
 pened. Again a wave dashed over him and swept him away. 
 Where did he find himself next ? Rock. What did he do ? What 
 was the consequence of this ? Saved him. If he had not done 
 that, what would have happened ? Why would he not have been 
 able to do anything towards saving his life, even when he had 
 one more opportunity ? Fainting. Which moment was this one, 
 then? The last and decisive. How did he use it? Very well. 
 How could he do so ? He was not overpowered by fear or 
 anguish. That's true; we may say he could still make use of 
 what? Of "his senses." Even more than that. That he 
 stretched out his arms just in the right moment was not chiefly an 
 act of his body, but rather of his mind. What is therefore said 
 of him in the story ? He had presence of mind. 
 
 Formulation of Maxim. — One should always keep his pres- 
 ence of mind in time of danger. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 103 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Ask questions showing the application of this general 
 truth. — Do you know of any case where you could act like Robin- 
 son ? (Pause.) You are perhaps thinking about a similar case at 
 sea, but you do not need to go so far ; there are accidents "which 
 may happen to you at any time. Suppose you fell into a creek, 
 one or two feet deep, would you lie there and continually cry for 
 help, or would you try to get out by yourself? (Answer.) But 
 we have seen that you should also help others who are in danger. 
 What would you do if your little sister should happen to fall into 
 that creek near your, house? Ans. — Spring in and save her. 
 Why not run home and call somebody else ? Might be too late. 
 In which case would you show presence of mind ? 
 
 To-morrow we shall review this wonderful story, and I shall 
 see who can give me njore such cases in which you would show 
 what you have learned from brave Robinson. 
 
 But there is one point left ; who knows ? Robinson thanking 
 God for his rescue. Why did he do this? He did not think the 
 rescue was only his own work. Truly, his own efforts had been 
 blessed by help from God. A proverb (?) says : '• Help yourself, 
 and Ood will help you." Did he do well in thanking God for his 
 salvation? All: Certainly. Should you also be thankful for his 
 lielp as Robinson was ? All : O, yes ; we learned that long, long 
 ago. Very well ; and how you can do this, mamma will tell you 
 more at length than we can do here. 
 
 § 50. Oral language-lesson for third or fourth grade. 
 PARIS AND HELEN. 
 
 There was once a sea-god named Nereus, who lived upon the 
 bottom of the sea, in a splendid grotto, with his fifty daughters, the 
 nereids. The nereids were friendly to men, and whenever a ship 
 was in danger from storm, they were glad to help the troubled 
 sailors. They were all very beautiful, and one of them, Thetis, 
 especially so. Even the gods of the sky loved them. Now, 
 there was a young prince of Thessaly, named Peleus, who was 
 
104 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 also a favorite of the gods. To him the gods gave the beautiful 
 Thetis as his wife. The marriage was celebrated upon Mount 
 Pelion. All the gods and the goddesses were invited to the 
 wedding, except the goddess of Discord, Eris Because she was 
 not invited, Eris wanted revenge ; so when the joyousness was 
 greatest, she appeared suddenly with a golden apple in her hand, 
 which she threw among the guests, crying, " For the most 
 beautiful." Then she disappeared. A strife now arose among 
 the goddesses, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, each of whom wished 
 to be thought the most beautiful. They were all indeed very 
 beautiful, much more so than any mortal. Juno was the wife of 
 Jupiter, the highest of the gods, and was as beautiful as could 
 be imagined ; whoever saw her, was filled with reverence, and 
 scarcely dared to look up at her. Minerva was beautiful like the 
 daughter of a hero ; courage and wisdom glanced from her lovely 
 eyes. Venus was wonderfully lovely, and one could never tire 
 of beholding her beauty. Since no one of them would give up to 
 the others, they decided to select a mortal as judge. But Eris had 
 now her desire, for since strife had arisen, all pleasure was at an 
 end, and the wedding guests departed. 
 
 In Asia in a deep woody vale of Mount Ida, not far from the 
 city of Troy, lived a young prince named Paris. He tended the 
 flocks of his father. It was he who was chosen to decide which of 
 the three goddesses was the most beautiful. He was one day sit- 
 ting in the shadow of a tree, and playing upon a reed jjipe, when 
 suddenly the goddesses in their brilliant beauty appeared before 
 him. They gave him the golden apple, and told him to give it 
 to the one whom he thought most beautiful. Juno said to him, 
 "If you will give the apple to me, I will make you a mighty 
 king, and you shall rule over broad lands." Minerva said, "If 
 you will give me the apple, I will give you great wisdom, so 
 that men shall praise you as a god, and shall come from afar to 
 ask your advice." But Venus said, "My reward to you, if you 
 decide in my favor, shall be the most beautiful wife to be found 
 upon the earth." 
 
 Each reward promised by the goddesses, as they spoke one by 
 one, appeared to the prince the highest that could be desired. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 105 
 
 But being young, he finally thought there could be nothing finer 
 than to have the most beautiful wife on earth. Therefore, he 
 handed the apple to Venus. This victory gi-eatly pleased her, 
 but the other goddesses cast their hate upon Paris and his whole 
 race. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 {By a Normal Student.) 
 
 Story divided into three sections, each of which is treated as a 
 method-whole. 
 
 I. — (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Do we ever hear of more than one God? 
 Do you think people always thought there was only one God ? 
 They used to think the sun was a god, that there was a god of 
 thunder, of light, and gods of the sea. Have any of you ever 
 seen a sea ? Where do you suppose the gods of the sea lived ? 
 Who has ever heard or read of a cave or grotto ? Do you think 
 the people supposed the gods were anything like men and had 
 children like men? Do you suppose the daughters of the gods 
 worked the same as our girls now work, or as our grandmothers 
 used to work when they were girls? How many have ever 
 heard them tell about spinning and about the spinning-wheels, 
 the spindles, etc., they used to use? Can you tell me what a 
 spindle is? Do you think these girls of the gods were anything 
 like our grandmothers, or your sisters and playmates who like to 
 help people when they are in trouble ? 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Story to ** They were all very beautiful," 
 etc. Repetitions and corrections. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Did you ever see a little boy or girl in danger ? Coasting, 
 skating. Did you try to help them ? 
 
 Formulation. — We must help our friends. 
 
 (O.) 
 
 (4) Application. — What should we do when we see a little 
 friend accidentally drop his books, or fall, or lose his ball ? 
 
106 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 II. -(A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Where do you think the gods of the sun, the 
 lightning, etc., lived? How many can tell whether a prince is a 
 god or not .5^ How many can tell me anything about a prince? 
 Do you know what the wives of the gods were called? There 
 were goddesses of wisdom, beauty, courage, love, discord, har- 
 mony, etc. How many can tell what is meant by discord ? Do 
 you think the people would be happy where the goddess of Dis- 
 cord was ? When some people think they are not well treated, 
 how do they feel ? Revengeful. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Story to " A strife now arose," etc. Repe- 
 tition, adding first section. 
 
 (1) Preparation. — How many know what is meant by strife? 
 Do you not think it would be strange to have a strife at a wedding ? 
 Bring out children's idea of reverence and of any other words they 
 might not understand clearly. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Story to "In Asia," etc. Repetition of 
 whole so far as learned. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) If some people do not treat us just as we think we ought to 
 be treated, is it right for us to try to make them unhappy ? Is it 
 right for people to try so hard for a thing that they are unkind 
 to each other ? Can any one be happy by so doing ? Was it right 
 for these goddesses to be proud of their beauty ? If they had 
 been as good as they were beautiful, would they have been so 
 jealous of each other? Cannot all people, even if they are not 
 beautiful, be good? 
 
 Formulation. — We should not seek revenge. Do not quarrel 
 with your playmates. We should not be proud of our good looks. 
 Handsome is as handsome does. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application. — If one of your little playmates should try 
 to tease you, would it be right for you to be unkind to him in any 
 way ? Do you not feel sorry when you have had trouble with any 
 of your playmates ? How can you be happy, then ? If boys and 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 107 
 
 girls have not beautiful faces, can they not be beautiful by 
 making their lives beautiful? How can they make their lives 
 beautiful ? 
 
 III. - (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Where is Asia? Teacher get children's 
 idea of a mountain and a valley, and help them locate Troy. 
 How many have ever seen a reed ? Do you think any one could 
 make music on one ? Get the children's idea of decide, advice, 
 victory, etc. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Finish story, uniting sections. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Did Paris do right to decide in favor of Venus simply 
 because he wanted her present ? Is it right when any one is act- 
 ing as judge, to decide in favor of anything but what is right? 
 
 Formulation. — We should not let our opinions be bought. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application. — If one of your playmates should say she 
 would give you an apple if you would say she had the prettiest 
 doll, what would you do ? If mamma should ask you to do an 
 errand for her, would it be right to say, "I will if you will give 
 me a piece of cake " ? What should you do ? 
 
 § 51. A lesson in beginning grammar. 
 
 WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A SENTENCE? 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Why do we talk or write? To convey our 
 thoughts to others. How is our thought expressed ? In words. 
 Are the words arranged in any particular way? Yes, in sen- 
 tences. Do you know, then, what a sentence is? It is the ex- 
 pression of a thought in words. Can one word make a sentence ? 
 Can two ? Do any sentences require at least three ? The words 
 which are necessary to make a sentence might be called its essen- 
 
108 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 tial elements. Do you suppose the number of essential elements 
 is the same in all sentences ? Let us tiy to find out. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — How many words are there in the sen- 
 tence, 
 
 Dofjfs are animals ? 
 
 There are three. What does the word dogs express ? The idea 
 of a certain kind of animals. The word animals') The idea of 
 a certain class of living things. What does the word are ex- 
 press ? Not the idea of a thing, but an affirmation, or decision, 
 of the mind with regard to dogs and animals. Could there be a 
 thought which does not think or affirm something of something else ? 
 No. Could any one of the three words be omitted without 
 destroying the present sense of this sentence? No. Wliat is 
 asserted of cZo(7S ? TFAa^ they are. 
 In the sentence, 
 
 Dogs are brave, 
 
 what is asserted of dogs') How they are. Bravery is asserted of 
 them. 
 
 Could any of these words be omitted ? In the sentence, 
 
 Dogs are harking, 
 
 what is asserted of dogs) The action barking. What word 
 makes the assertion ? The word are. Could any of these words 
 be omitted ? No. How many essential elements have we found 
 in each of the three sentences ? About what has each assertion 
 been made? Dogs. This word is, as you know, called what? 
 The subject. What is the second or asserting word in these sen- 
 tences called ? It is called the copula. What is the third word 
 called ? It is called the attribute, because it shows what has been 
 attributed to the subject. 
 
 All of these sentences have had three essential words or ele- 
 ments ; can you give me a statement about dogs which shall con- 
 tain but two words ? 
 
 Dogs hark. 
 
 Is this an assertion? Yes. About what is the assertion 
 made ? Dogs. What is asserted of them ? The action bark- 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 109 
 
 ing. What word asserts the action barking of dogs ? (A prob- 
 able pause.) The word bark. How many offices does the word 
 bark appear to perform? Two. What are they? The office 
 of the copula and also that of the attribute. Can you make 
 another sentence about dogs which shall contain but two words ? 
 Yes. 
 
 Dogs are. 
 
 What does this mean? What have you asserted of dogs? I 
 have asserted their existence (dogs exist — are existing) . What 
 word asserts this ? The word are. How many offices does the 
 word are appear to fulfill ? Two ; that of copula and that of attri- 
 bute. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) In each of the foregoing sentences we have found three 
 elements. Can you tell what they are? (1) An assertion (2) of 
 something (3) about something else. INIust every sentence tell or 
 assert something? Can you assert without asserting something? 
 Can you assert anything without asserting it of something? 
 How many elements, then, appear necessary to every sentence? 
 
 Formulation. — There are three essential elements in every sen- 
 tence, SUBJECT, COPULA, and ATTRIBUTE; bid the copula and 
 aitribute may be blended into one word when the attribute is verbal. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Select the essential elements in each of the sentences of your 
 reading lesson (subject, copula, and attribute ; or, if the last two 
 are blended, subject and verb). Remember that subject and attri- 
 bute may have many modifying words. 
 
 § 52. A lesson in advanced grammar. 
 
 NATURE AND USE OF THE ADJECTIVE. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Review of the noun. What did we find the 
 
 proper noun to fee ? An individual name, or a name which ivith- 
 
 out limitation will apply to one object. Illustrate : John^ Chicago 
 
110 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 These names apply to their respective objects without any limita- 
 tion or modification by adjectives. Is not the same thing true of 
 common nouns ? No ; a common noun cannot apply to one object, 
 or to a number of objects less than the whole class without being 
 limited by an adjective. Illustrate : This apple, two boys, some 
 trees, good children, a tall man. To what does a common noun 
 refer when it is used without limitation ? To a whole class or to 
 the totality of that to which it refers. Illustrate : Cats have sharp 
 teeth and claws, i.e., all cats; water is good to drink; beauty is 
 pleasant to look upon. Must every noun indicate some number 
 or quantity of that which it names? Of course. Classify objects 
 according to number or quantity, 0?ie, sorne, all. What name 
 have we given to that property of the noun by virtue of which it 
 indicates a number or quantity ? Its extent. Show in a scheme 
 what is possible with regard to the extent of the noun. 
 
 f (1.) One. 
 (Individual ) 
 
 Extent of the Noun, i.e., (2.) Some, f (i.) A limited No. 
 
 the No. or quantity of that \ (Particular.) 1 (2.) A limited quantity, 
 to which the noun refers. 
 
 (3.) All. f (1.) The whole No. 
 
 (General.) | (2.) The whole quantity. 
 
 Is there any other idea besides number or quantity involved in 
 the noun? Yes, quality. Show what you mean by this. An 
 object may be thought of as composed of the qualities which 
 inhere in it. Thus, an apple is round, red, juicy, delicious, nutri- 
 tive, smooth or rough, small or large, light or heavy. Since the 
 idea of an apple includes its qualities, the name of that idea also 
 involves them. Are certain qualities found in all objects of a 
 given class? Yes; a tree, for instance, must have root, stem, 
 bark, leaves, sap, wood. Does an individual object have qualities 
 not found in all others of its class? Yes ; some roses arc red, and 
 some are white. What is a good name for the property of the 
 noun by virtue of which it indicates what the idea of the object 
 contains ? The content. Show by a scheme what the content of a 
 noun may be. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. HI 
 
 Content of the Noun, i.e., the 
 qualities of the objects which 
 the noun represents. 
 
 ' (1.) Qualities common to the whole 
 class. 
 
 (2.) Qualities peculiar to the indi- 
 vidual object (as well as those 
 [ common to the whole class). 
 
 (2) Presentation. — In the sentence, 
 
 Boi/s become vien, 
 
 how many jiersons do the terms boys and men include? All boys 
 and all men; they refer to the whole class of boys and to the 
 whole class of men. In the sentence, 
 
 Most boys become men, 
 
 what has been done to the word boys'^ It has been limited in 
 extent from all boys to some boys. In the sentence, 
 
 This boy will become a man, 
 
 how has the word feoy been affected? It has been limited from 
 the whole class to a single individual. In the sentence, 
 
 Water quenches fire, 
 
 how is the word water used ? In its general or universal sense ; 
 it includes all water. Is this true in 
 
 Bring me some water? 
 
 No. A certain quantity is refen*ed to, so that the word water is 
 limited from its general sense, in which it includes all water, so 
 that it embraces only a certain quantity. 
 
 (In practice, the teacher would now probably sum up what has 
 been learned under the head of limiting adjectives, since this 
 would be ample for one lesson.; We will, however, complete the 
 subject of the adjective, as if it were to be treated in a single 
 recitation.) 
 
 Have the adjectives thus far done anything more than limit the 
 extent of the noun ? No. What office do the adjectives perfoim 
 in the followin«r sentences? 
 
112 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 (1) Good Indians die yoirng. 
 
 (2) Tall oaks from little acorns grow. 
 
 (3) The frisky lamb plays about its mother. 
 
 (4) The bright sun rises to his course. 
 
 (5) The purring kitten loves to lie by the fire. 
 
 (6) Tall boys make tall men. 
 
 They modify the noun by pointing out some quality belonging 
 to the object represented by it. Does the adjective in any case 
 li7nil the extent of the noun ? Yes ; in the first sentence the word 
 Indians is limited to a part of the class. The implication is that 
 only bad Indians grow up. In the sixth class, also, tall boys are 
 contrasted in thought with boys who are not tall ; hence, the word 
 boys is limited in extent. In the second, it is not intended to 
 restrict the term oaks to those which are tall, for all oaks grow 
 from acorns. Neither is it intended to limit the word lamb in the 
 third, for all lambs are frisky. In the fourth, there is no limita- 
 tion in extent, for we have but one sun. So in the fifth, all 
 kittens purr. In numbers two, three, four, and five, the adjective 
 merely modifies the noun by pointing out a quality. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) We have thus far found two kinds of adjectives. What are 
 they? Those which simply limit the extent of the noun, and 
 those which modify the noun by pointing out a quality. What 
 shall we call the first? The limiting adjectives. What the 
 second ? The qualifying adjectives. What distinction did we find 
 among the qualifying adjectives ? We found that some of them 
 restrict or limit the extent of the noun, while others simply de- 
 scribe without limiting. What qualifying adjectives would, in 
 general, restrict? Those which point out qualities not common 
 to the whole class. Wliich would generally not restrict? Those 
 applying to the wliole class. How, then, shall we define the 
 adjective ? 
 
 Formulation. — (1) An adjective is a word that limits or modi- 
 fies a noun. (2) A limiting adjective is one that limits the extent 
 of a noun, without showing any quality, (3) A qualifying adjec- 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 113 
 
 Hve is one that modifies the noun by showing a quality, sometimes 
 restricting the extent of the noun and sometimes not. 
 Show this in a scheme. 
 
 The Adjective 
 
 (1.) Limiting ■ 
 
 (2.) Qualifying 
 
 (1.) From all to some or one. 
 
 (2.) From the total to a limited 
 quantity, or from a limited quantity 
 to a smaller quantity. 
 
 f (1.) From all to 
 some or one. 
 
 (2.) From the 
 total to a lim- 
 ited quantity, 
 or from a cer- 
 tain quantity 
 to a smaller 
 quantity. 
 
 (2. ) Non-Restrictive, simply point- 
 ing out a quality, without limit- 
 ing the extent. 
 
 (1.) Restrictive 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application. — In the following exercise, select the limiting 
 and the qualifying adjectives. Show which of the latter are re- 
 strictive. What do you note about most of these qualifying adjec- 
 tives ? They are non-restrictive. Why is this ? Because poetry 
 appeals more to the imagination than to the faculty of logical 
 exactness. How would a judge be likely to use his qualifying 
 adjectives ? 
 
 The sun that brief December day 
 Rose cheerless over hills of gray, 
 And, darkly circled, gave at noon 
 A sadder light than waning moon. 
 Slow tracing down the thickening sky 
 Its mute and ominous prophecy, 
 A portent seeming less than threat, 
 It sank from sight before it set. 
 
114 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 A chill no coat, however stout, 
 
 Of homespun stuff could quite shut out, 
 
 A hard, dull bitterness of cold, 
 
 That checked, mid-vein, the circling race 
 
 Of life-blood in the sharpened face. 
 
 The coming of the snow storm told. 
 
 The wind blew east ; we heard the roar 
 
 Of Ocean on his wintry shore, 
 
 And felt the strong pulse throbbing there 
 
 Beat with low rhythm our inland air. 
 
 MATHEMATICS. 
 
 § 53. Number lesson for the first grade. 
 
 (This lesson is taken from Rein's " Das Erste Schuljahr," and is 
 an example of a highly elaborated method. The children have learned 
 a story, in the language-work, about a poor little girl whose father 
 and mother had died; and the number of persons represented forms 
 the starting-point of the new lesson.) 
 
 THE NUMBER THREE. 
 
 Aim. — We will find out how many persons there were in the 
 house of the little Star Dollar Girl while her father and mother 
 were still alive. 
 
 PART I. — ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — We have counted many things. How many 
 walls has the schoolroom? How many windows? How many 
 panes has the lower sash ? The upper ? Both ? How many maps 
 hang on the wall ? 
 
 (2) Presentation. — (1) The three persons. 
 
 (a) There was first the father (1), then the mother (1 + 1 = 2), 
 then their little girl (2 + 1 = 3). How many people were there ? 
 Three. Who were they ? Father, mother, and child. How many 
 are father and mother together? Two. How many are father, 
 mother, and child? Three. Count them. Father, 1 ; mother, 2 ; 
 child, 8 : 1, 2, 3. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 115 
 
 (b) But the three did not remain together. The father died 
 and was buried. How many were left in the house ? Now the 
 mother died. How many were left ? Finally the little girl went 
 away ; then there was no one left in the house. One away from 
 3 leaves 2, 1 from 2 leaves 1, 1 from 1 leaves nothing (zero); 
 3, 2, 1. 
 
 (2) Transition from persons to balls upon the Abacus, three 
 balls being set off upon a horizontal wire, the following being 
 said : That is the father, that is the mother, that is the child. 
 
 (a) Repetition of the foregoing exercise in connection with the 
 balls : — 
 
 The father = 1 person ; father and mother = 2 persons ; father 
 and mother and child = 3 persons. 
 
 Three persons — 1 person = 2 persons ; two persons — 1 per- 
 son = 1 person ; one person — 1 person = persons. 
 
 BRIEFER. 
 
 1 person, 2 persons, 3 persons; 3 persons, 2 persons, 1 person. 
 
 STILL BRIEFER. 
 
 1, 2, 3; 3, 2, 1. 
 
 (b) Repeat the given series, using ordinals : — 
 
 The father is the 1st person. The child is the 3d person. 
 The mother is the 2d person. The mother is the 2d person. 
 The child is the 3d person. The father is the 1st person. 
 Point to the 1st, the 3d, the 2d, the 3d, the 1st person. 
 
 (3) Represent the three members, 1, 2, 3, with sticks arranged 
 vertically, and run through the series forwards and backwards. 
 
 (a) The father is 1 (teacher places a stick) ; father and mother 
 are together 2 (teacher places a second stick alongside of the 
 first) ; father, mother, and child are together 3 (teacher places 
 another stick). 
 
 (b) That is 1 person (pointing to the 1). 
 
 These are 2 persons. 
 These are 3 persons. 
 These together are 3 persons. 
 These are 2 persons. 
 This is 1 person. 
 
116 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 This is one. These are three. 
 
 These are two. These are two. 
 
 These are three. This is one. 
 
 1, 2, 3. 3, 2, 1. 
 
 (c) After 1 stands 2. Before 3 stands 2. 
 
 After 2 stands 3. Before 2 stands 1. 
 
 (4) Arrangement of lines and numbers on the board as follows : 
 (a) Repetition of the exercise with the sticks. 
 
 (6) Drill with the figm-es 1, 2, 3. 
 
 (c) Draw the three lines in squares upon the slate, and place 
 the respective figures beneath, as on the board. 
 
 (d) Write the figures from 1 to 3, and from 3 to 1, without the 
 aid of the lines. 
 
 (5) Here are our three numbers again : 1, 2, 3. Change the 1 
 into a 3. What must you place alongside of it? Make a 3 from 
 the 2. What must now be placed alongside of the 2? How 
 many 3's have you now? Point to the first, the second, the 
 third. 
 
 (a) From this arrangement is gained : — 
 
 3=1+2 1+2=3 
 
 3=2+1 2+1=3 
 
 3=3 3=3 
 
 Read this (teacher points to the first) : — 
 3 is 2 + 1, etc. Point to 2 + 1, 1 + 2. 
 Who can say all the sentences (first from left to right, then the 
 reverse) ? Practice until this can be done perfectly. 
 
 (6) Let this exercise follow, pupils attentively saying : — 
 
 3 — 1 = 2 3 — 3 = 
 
 3—2=1 3-2=1 
 
 3 — 3 = 3—1 = 2 
 
 (c) Writing the figures. — Teacher writes the figures on the board 
 so the children can see her. Pupils write them upon the board 
 and upon their slates, then pointing to the figures repeat the sen- 
 tences, using and for +, and less for—. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 117 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Transition to the formulation of general tinith. 
 {a) Represent the three 3's with sticks, with straight marks, 
 with points, with rings. Make a 3 with sticks from 2 + 1, from 
 1 + 2. 
 (6) Make a 3 with points, lines, rings, 
 (c) Make the other series from 1 to 3. 
 
 1+1=2 3—1=2 
 
 2+1=3 2-1=1 
 
 1+2=3 1—1=0 
 
 Read each of the sentences. 
 
 Formulation. — Systematic placing together of the series 
 learned, orally and in writing. 
 
 (a) 1 2 3 3 2 1 
 
 (6) 3 = 1 + 2 3—1 = 2 
 
 3=2+1 3—2=1 
 
 3=3 3-3=0 
 
 (c) 1 + 1 = 2 3 — 1 = 2 
 
 1+2=3 2—1=1 
 
 2+1=3 1—1=0 
 
 vO.) 
 
 (4) Application. — (a) 1 to 3 ; from 3 to 1. Place sticks along- 
 side of one another to show 1, 2, and 3. 
 
 (6) What number comes next after 1, after 2 ? what number 
 stands before 3, before 2 ? What number stands between 1 and 
 3 ? Where does 1 stand ? 2 ? 3 ? 
 
 (c) Name 3 boys, 3 girls. Which of you has 3 sisters ? or 2 ? 
 only 1 brother ? 1 sister ? 
 
 (c?) Name the two numbers which make 3, another two ; three 
 numbers which make 3 ; one number which makes 3. 
 
 (e) How many must be added to 2 to make 3 ? How many 
 must be taken from 3 that 2 may be left ? 
 
 (/) Write the three 3's in the squares. 
 
 {g) There are 3 children in the room. One goes out, how many 
 
118 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 are left? Another goes out, how many still remain ? Two come 
 in again, how many are there now ? 
 
 (h) You have given to the poor. If you had 3 cents and gave 
 1 to a poor man, how many would you have left ? If from 3 cents 
 you give away 2, or all 3, how many would you have ? 
 
 German verse for the playground : — 
 
 Eins, zwei, drei, Salz auf den Speck, 
 
 Butter auf dem Brei, Du musst weg. — Simrock. 
 
 Part II. — Multiplication and Division are developed in 
 a similar manner. 
 
 § 54. Foui'th grade Arithmetic lesson. 
 
 TO MULTIPLY A FRACTION BY AN INTEGER. 
 (A.) 
 (1) Preparation. — How does a common fraction arise ? By 
 dividing a unit into a number of equal parts, one or more of these 
 parts being considered as a fractional number. How is the frac- 
 tion written ? What does the number below the line show ? The 
 number of parts into which the unit has been divided. If the 
 size of the unit is known, what does the denominator also show ? 
 The size of each of the equal parts. Illustrate. If one dollar is 
 divided into ten equal parts, each part has the value of J^ of a 
 dollar, or ten cents. Can the relative size of the parts be known, 
 even though the size of the unit is not known ? Yes : ^ is twice 
 as large as \ of the same unit ; ^ is 3 times as large as \ of the 
 same unit, or 5 times as large as Jg- of the same unit. What is 
 the relation between the size of the parts and the number of parts 
 into which the unit is divided ? The larger the number of parts 
 into which a unit is divided, the smaller their size must be. 
 What does the numerator show ? The number of parts or frac- 
 tional units in the fraction. What effect, does it have on the value 
 of a fraction to increase the number of parts, or fractional units ? 
 It increases the value of the fraction. Illustrate. ^ of a given 
 unit is twice as great in value as ^ of the same unit. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, 119 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Multiply f by 2 ; i.e., how much are 2 3's 
 of sevenths ? Take two pieces of paper of the same size. 
 Divide both into 7ths. Remove four sevenths fi'om each. How 
 much of each is left? ^. How many 7ths are there in what 
 remains of the two original papers ? There are six 7ths. Show 
 this by figures. | X 2 = ^. What appears to have been done 
 to the numerator of the fraction? It has been multiplied by 2. 
 
 Multiply I by 2. Take again two papers of equal size and 
 fold them into 8ths. Reject | of each. How many 8ths are left 
 in each paper ? |. How many 8ths in both pieces ? There are 
 six Sths. Make half as man}' parts out of these |. How can 
 you do this ? By making the size of the parts twice as great ; 
 i.e., by making the parts 4ths. How many 4ths are there in |? 
 There are 3. Show this by figures. | = f , hence | X 2 ^= f . 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Derivation of a rule. 
 
 We found that f X 2 = ^; i.e., that this fraction was multi- 
 plied by 2 by multiplying the numerator by 2. Suppose the mul- 
 tiplier had been 3? 4? 6? In any case the fraction is multi- 
 plied by multiplying the numerator, since if the number of parts, 
 or fractional units is multiplied, the value of the fraction is 
 multiplied. 
 
 Formulation. — A fraction is multiplied by an integer by 
 multiplying its numerator by the integer. 
 
 We found further, that | is multiplied by 2 by dividing the 
 denominator by 2. Suppose the multiplier had been 4? Could 
 I be multiplied by 4 by dividing the denominator by 4 ? Yes ; 
 for the number of parts in the resulting fraction would be un- 
 changed, but they would now be four times as large as at first, 
 since the number of parts into which the unit is divided is only 
 one-fourth as gi*eat as before. Make a rule. 
 
 Formulation. — Ajraction may be multiplied by an integer by 
 dividing the denominator by the integer. 
 
 Will the denominator always contain the multiplier an mtegral 
 number of times ? No. What must then be done ? The nu- 
 merator must be multiplied. Which is preferable ? It is better 
 
120 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 to divide the denominator when this can be done, because the 
 product is in lower terms th^m it is when the numerator is multi- 
 plied. Put these two rules together in a good way. 
 
 Formulation. — To multiply a fraction by an integer, divide 
 the denominator if it contains the multiplier as a factor, otherwise 
 multiply the numerator. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application. — Practice upon the abstract and concrete 
 problems given in the text-book. 
 
 READING. 
 
 § 55. In order not to multiply forms needlessly, the 
 following general outline is selected from Dr. Frick, 
 Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge, 6 Heft, pp. 110-113. 
 
 TREATMENT OF A READING LESSON (poetry or prose) 
 
 IN LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASSES. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — (1) Announcement of purpose of lesson. 
 (2) Introductory discussion (question and answer) designed to 
 awaken the expectation of the pupil, and to prepare his mind for 
 the new lesson by preparing connecting points with his experi- 
 ence and present knowledge. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — (1) Expressive reading by the teacher, 
 who marks the chief natural subdivisions by short pauses. Get 
 first a general view of the whole. (2) Consideration of the 
 smaller sections. Proceed even here from the general idea of the 
 whole situation to each smaller unity. Fix this general view by 
 temporary development of titles which sum up briefly the chief 
 content of each subdivision. Follow this by closer treatment of 
 each division. For example, give brief explanations of words 
 and thoughts ; discover and clearly grasp the various elements of 
 the selection (time, place, personalities and their increase in 
 number, actions and their development) . 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 121 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Elaboration. — (1) In regard to content (thought): re- 
 view of the articulation (number of members and their relation 
 to one another) ; of the disposition and development of the whole : 
 of the growth of mental pictures for the observation ; of judg- 
 ments (of aisthetical and ethical kind) . Means ; questions whose 
 tendency is to concentrate the mind of the pupils upon the chief 
 points of a thought- whole (called concentration questions). 
 Result : a clear conception of the whole. 
 
 (2) In regard to form : Review of what is characteristic in 
 language (distinction between poetic and prosaic, figurative and 
 literal expression) , in meter, in rhetorical figures of speech. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application. — Practical exercises to gain and show an 
 understanding and mastery of what has been attempted: (1) 
 Reading by the pupils, careful drill (alone, with the teacher, in 
 chorus). (2) Speaking: systematic reproduction of the various 
 points (series building) ; reproduction of the headings, and, in 
 connection, the whole disposition of the matter ; reproduction of 
 the content of the smaller section in connected narrative; free 
 reproduction of the whole content, with especial regard to what 
 has been added during the study of the selection. (3) Writing : 
 written elaboration of certain definite points in the class, or as 
 compositions for home work, after the content has been gained 
 through the instruction, and carefully developed by the labor of 
 all. (4) Memorizing exercises. 
 
 § 56. Memorizing in the lower classes. 
 
 GENERAL PLAN. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Question and answer to awaken interest, 
 clear up unfamiliar words and ideas. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — (1) Expressive reading of the whole by 
 the teacher, that the pupils may grasp the idea of the piece as a 
 whole. (2) Discussion of the various sections of the selection in 
 
122 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 order, so that the pupils may get a perfect understanding of the 
 thought. (3) The formation of the series : (a) The longer series 
 should consist of catch-words which show the logical order of the 
 thought, and the whole development: they may pertain to the 
 personalities, to place and time, to actions, etc. (6) The shorter 
 series should be those of a more mechanical nature, as rhyme, 
 rhythm, alliteration, regularly recurring forms, etc. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) In memorizing exercises, the main point to arrive at is the 
 perfect, intelligent memorizing of the whole selection. Hence 
 this is the stage at which all that has been learned should be gath- 
 ered up, knit firmly together, and reproduced as a whole. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Application, or Drill. — Repeated repetition of the whole, 
 and its various series, that the selection may be remembered to 
 the last day of life. It is hardly needful to remark that nothing 
 trivial, light, or of transitory interest is worthy of such treatment 
 as is here indicated. What is learned in this way is to be learned 
 forever. 
 
 § 57. Model Exercise. 
 
 EXCELSIOR. 
 
 1. The shades of night were falling fast. 
 As through an Alpine village passed 
 A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, 
 A banner with the strange device, 
 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 2. His brow was sad : his eye beneath 
 Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, 
 And like a silver clarion rung 
 
 The accents of that unknown tongue, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 123 
 
 3. In happy homes he saw the light 
 
 Of household fires gleam warm and bright ; 
 Above, the spectral glaciers shone, 
 And from his lips escaped a groan, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 4. *' Try not the pass ! " the old man said ; 
 '• Dark lowers the tempest overhead. 
 The roaring torrent is deep and wide ! " 
 And loud that clarion voice replied, 
 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 5. " O stay ! " the maiden said, " and rest 
 Thy weary head upon this breast." 
 
 A tear stood in his bright blue eye, 
 But still he answered with a sigh, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 6. *• Beware the pine-tree's withered branch ! 
 Beware the awful avalanche ! " 
 
 This was the peasant's last good-night. 
 A voice replied, far up the height, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 7. At break of day, as heavenward 
 The pious monks of Samt Bernard 
 Uttered the oft-rejDeated prayer, 
 
 A voice cried through the startled air, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 8. A traveler, by the faithful hound, 
 Half-buried in the snow was found. 
 Still grasping in his hand of ice 
 That banner with the strange device, 
 
 Excelsior ! 
 
124 TUE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 9. There in the twilight cold and gray. 
 Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay ; 
 And from the sky, serene and far, 
 A voice fell like a falling star, 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — Introductory remarks and questions. Take 
 your maps and turn to the map of Europe. Do you see the map 
 of any country which is full of mountains ? What are the highest 
 mountains in Europe called? The Alps. Point them out. Do 
 people live among them? Yes, in villages. Is the weather 
 always bright and warm in the mountains ? No : some of the 
 mountains are always covered with snow. What are often found 
 between the mountains where snow has melted and then frozen ? 
 Find the name in your books. Who has it? Glaciers. Who 
 live on the tops of these mountains ? Monks. Why ? How do 
 they find belated and storm-driven travelers ? With dogs. How 
 do people get through the mountains? Through passes. What 
 sometimes happens here ? The snow slides down the mountain- 
 side. What is this called? The avalanche. Are these moun- 
 tains very high ? Might one continue to climb higher and higher 
 for a long time ? There is a Latin word which means higher. 
 It is Excelsior. All pronounce it. We will now read and commit 
 to memory a poem by Longfellow, called Excelsior. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Teacher reads the whole poem expres- 
 sively. Separate the poem into three equal parts for convenience. 
 How does each stanza end ? 
 
 First Part. — What is meant by the shades of night9 From 
 what does the word Alpine come ? What did the youth carry ? 
 What is a device? Where was it written? The next stanza 
 tells how he looked and what he did. What is sl falchion, a silver 
 clarion ? Why unknown tongue ? What kind of a word is Excel- 
 sior') The next stanza tells what the youth saw: (a) in the vil- 
 lage ; (h) in the mountains. Why spectral ^ Why did a groan 
 come from his lips ? Must he be true to the motto he carries ? 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 125 
 
 What does this mean ? What does the first stanza show ? Where 
 and when the youth passed with his banner. The second? How 
 he looked and what he said. What did he say ? Excelsior. What 
 does the third stanza say ? It tells what he saw in the village and 
 on the mountain ; that he groaned when he thought he must go 
 higher. Let us read these stanzas and then repeat them. What 
 rhymes do you notice in the first ? Fast, passed ; ice, device. In 
 the second ? Beneath, sheath ; rung, tongue. In the third ? Light, 
 bright ; shone, groan. In the second, what is contrasted with the 
 sad brow? The flashing eye. In the third, what is contrasted 
 with the firelight of the homes? The shining of the spectral 
 glaciers. Repeat the stanzas again. 
 
 Second Part. — Who speaks to the youth in the fourth stanza? 
 In the fifth ? In the sixth ? Of what does the old man warn 
 him ? The tempest overhead, and the roaring torrent. What 
 did the clarion voice reply ? 
 
 W^hat did the maiden invite him to do ? To stay and rest his 
 head upon her breast. Why was there a tear in his eye? Why 
 did he answer with a sigh ? What was the peasant's warning ? 
 
 *' Beware the pine-tree's withered branch, 
 Beware the awful avalanche ! " 
 
 How could the withered pine-tree's branch harm him ? How the 
 avalanche? What time was it now? What are the peasant's 
 words called ? The peasant's last good-night. Wliere was the 
 youth ? Far up the height. What did tlie voice reply ? Excel- 
 sior. What are the rhymes in the fourth ? Said, overhead ; wide, 
 replied. Read the stanza. Now repeat it from memory. What 
 are the rhymes in the fifth ? Rest, breast ; eye, sigh. Read care- 
 fully. Now repeat. What are the rhymes of the sixth ? Branch, 
 avalanche ; good-night, height. Read. Repeat from memory. 
 
 Third Part. — Where did the j^outh go when he left the vil- 
 lage ? Higher up the mountain. To whom would he come last ? 
 The pious monks of Saint Bernard, Which stanza tells of this ? 
 What does the eighth describe? How he was found by the faith- 
 ful dog, with the banner still in his hand. What does the last 
 
126 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOB. 
 
 stanza describe ? How he lay, beautiful, but lifeless, in the twi- 
 light cold and gray, anti how a voice fell from the sky, as if his 
 spirit had gone still higher, and was still crying Excelsior. 
 Teacher reads the seventh, and the pupils repeat after him. 
 Note the rhymes. Repeat from memory. So of the last two 
 stanzas. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) Grasping the -whole in memory. — What do the first three 
 stanzas show? The youth, how he looked, what he saw. The 
 second three ? What the old man said, what the maiden said, 
 what the peasant said. The last three ? The startling of the 
 pious monks, the finding of the traveler by the faithful hound, 
 the lifeless but beautiful form, and the voice falling from the 
 sky. What is the series of persons ? The youth, the old man, 
 the maiden, the peasants, the monks. Time and place? The 
 evening, the Alpine village, the pass, the height. What reply 
 was made to every warning or entreaty? Excelsior. The warn- 
 ings? Tempest, torrent, the pine-tree's withered branch, the 
 avalanche, llepeat the first section, the second, the third. Re- 
 peat the whole poem. 
 
 (O.) 
 
 (4) Drill. — Continue the repetitions of the sections and of the 
 whole, until each child can give the entire poem Avithout hesita- 
 tion. When the pupil hesitates, recall or form some new asso- 
 ciation, either rational or mechanical, which will enable him to 
 master this part. If, for instance, he hesitates in the middle 
 of the third stanza, call attention to the contrast between the 
 bright fires in the village and the spectral shining of the glaciers 
 above. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 § 58. Geography founded on actual observation by the 
 children. 
 
 (This work is taken from Dr. Rein's '*Das Dritte Schuljahr." 
 These excursions are actually made by the pupils. It was the 
 author's privilege to accompany the teachers of the Normal 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 127 
 
 School at Eisenach on an excursion with the children of the 
 practice-school, and to see also the practical working out in the 
 schoolroom of the ideas gained. There is no question as to 
 the immense practical benefit of this kind of work. It is proba- 
 ble that not many American teachers will think it possible for 
 them to spend a few hours with their schools upon excursions of 
 this kind ; but it is in the hope that some may do so, that these 
 general directions are inserted.) 
 
 VIEW OF THE METHOD-WHOLES. 
 
 Summer Excursions. 
 
 1. The tenltory of the Horsal. 
 
 2. The Wartburg and Metilstein. 
 
 3. TheWerra. 
 
 4. The Forest of Thuringia. 
 
 5. TheRhon. 
 
 6. The Saale. 
 
 7. The Unstrut. 
 
 8. The land between the Forest of Thuringia and the Hartz 
 Mountains. 
 
 EXCURSIONS. 
 
 FIRST YEAR. 
 
 1. In the fields as far as Amrichen Bridge. 
 
 2. In the woods. 
 
 3. Along the Horsal. 
 
 4. Visit to the castle. 
 
 6. Within the city (Jacobsplan, Eichel's House, The Black 
 Well, George Street, Half Moon, Market, Castle). 
 
 6. Upon the Goldberg, etc., making ten excursions during the 
 first year. 
 
 SECOND YEAR. 
 
 Eleven excursions about Eisenach, in woods and valleys, along 
 rivers and about ponds, on the hills and low mountains. 
 
 THIRD YEAR. 
 
 Fourteen excursions about the neighboring country, sometimes 
 spending an entire day upon a longer trip. 
 
128 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 GENERAL PLAN. 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — The basis for each method-whole is an 
 excursion taken with a fixed and definite purpose. Without this 
 excursion, the early geography is suspended in the air ; without 
 a suificient basis in observation, the geography degenerates into 
 the veriest verbalism. Hence the demand : as far as possible the 
 geographical instruction must be based upon excursions. 
 
 Before one of these is taken, the teacher should hold a prepara- 
 tory talk with the children. They must tell what they can about 
 the way they are going to take. They will get much of it wrong, 
 and many things they will know nothing about. The teacher 
 will note all these points carefully, that he may be able to call 
 their attention to that which they have poorly seen, or not ob- 
 served at all. Such a preparatory talk will impel them to try to 
 fill up the gaps in their knowledge, and to keep their eyes wide 
 open. Seeing and observing need to be taught as well as any- 
 thing else, for children, especially those of the city, are often only 
 too blind to what nature teaches. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — (1) Instruction in the open air. The 
 start is made. By means of the preparatory talk, the teacher 
 knows to what he must call their attention, what he must show 
 them and explain to them. He has previously measured the dis- 
 tance, and divided it appropriately. The children must now esti- 
 mate the distances and learn them. In addition, little problems 
 as to place and relation may be suggested, and can be drawn by 
 the teacher upon the sand or the ground, as may be convenient. 
 This has the advantage of showing the children how the geo- 
 graphical position of objects of the neighborhood may be repre- 
 sented upon a flat surface. They can also easily compare draw- 
 ing and thing, and govern the drawing by the reality. 
 
 (2) Study in the school. (a) It the foundation is thus laid, 
 the elaboration may begin in the school. It is best to take a rapid 
 review, in order to freshen the mind regarding what has been 
 gained. This may be done by having a pupil draw upon the 
 board from memory ; another may, in connection with this, give 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 129 
 
 an oral description. If the use of the map is understood, the 
 journey may be reviewed there, the children pointing out the 
 way and explaining. " Pumping" is here out of order ; for what 
 has been once brought together and fixed by the children must 
 not be torn up by miscellaneous questioning. If the drawing is 
 completed and briefly explained, — the teacher remains mostly 
 passive, only interfering when a correction is needed, — the in- 
 struction upon a new lesson may be begun. 
 
 (b) One teacher requires the pupil systematically to describe 
 and tell about the excursion they have taken. The child must 
 not be interrupted in his recital, even if he makes an omission, or 
 gets something wrong. He must be allowed to tell, in a quiet 
 and connected manner, all that he has seen and learned upon the 
 trip. The closer the observation was, the better will the descrip- 
 tion be. In these first general impressions there is always some- 
 thino' lackino;, somethino^ wron^. There must, therefore, be a 
 correcting and supplementing of this general impression. There 
 is a 7ieed for correcting errors now. It would be better, of course, 
 could the child be led again directly to nature, but this could 
 rarely be done. Besides that, the child must be taught to under- 
 stand and to rely upon the map. Geographical instruction must, 
 above all, stimulate the creation of vivid mental pictures, which 
 shall come close to the reality. The teacher must in no case 
 stop with the drilling in of names and numbers, or of maps. In 
 the latter case we talk rightly of "paper-geography." 
 
 To awaken and to form pictures of the imagination must be con- 
 sidered the great purpose of geography, however difficult the task 
 may be. 
 
 There are two means open to the teacher, of clearing up the 
 child's first imperfect general conceptions. (1) Drawing upon ' 
 the board ; (2) The wall map. The first has more interest to tlie 
 child, for he can see it made, help with suggestions, and it does 
 not confuse the view by a multitude of other things. It is, how- 
 ever, not exact, like the printed map. Pupils must gradually be 
 taught to use the map, though at first the board drawing is better 
 for them. When the map can be used, it must be employed to 
 correct and supplement the child's first general view of the topic. 
 
130 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 Interest must be aroused by informal discussion of the various 
 points. With a lively interest, the impression of the facts upon 
 their minds is an easy matter. 
 
 Besides this, there are various exercises which serve to give 
 the mind a sure hold upon the new matter. Variety is here help- 
 ful. The drill may be conducted in various ways : — 
 
 (1) The teacher points on the map according to the series, — 
 i.e., in the order in which the ideas were learned, — and ques- 
 tions. Difficult names he writes upon the board. 
 
 (2) Teacher points and questions in the reverse order. 
 
 (3) A pupil points irregularly, and another answers, and the 
 reverse. 
 
 (4) A pupil points and speaks at the same time. 
 
 (5) Recitation in chorus is often helpful in fixing points. 
 
 (c) Now follows the drawing of the new matter by the chil- 
 dren, also the isolation of individual geographical objects, which 
 is necessary for a close and deep observation and apprehension. 
 The drawing is first made upon the blackboard ; the others assist, 
 correcting by word and deed. The wall map may also be at hand 
 as a guide. 
 
 (d) The stage of presentation closes with a corrected and clear 
 apprehension of the whole on the part of the children. The new 
 matter has become clear to them. They must now be able to 
 spare the wall map, and also the drawings on the board. 
 
 (B.) 
 (3) Insight. — Comparison. — Formulation. 
 
 Modern geography is based upon comparison, so that associa- 
 tion is an important factor in this subject. Comparisons are in- 
 stituted between the old and the new material of instruction. 
 These relate to the direction, form, magnitude, etc., of the geo- 
 graphical objects. By means of these exercises, the notions of a 
 system become clear. In addition, the noting of antitheses and 
 contrasts is hel^^ful ; also, fixed series are formed, which, contin- 
 ually growing, finally end in a system. 
 
 In the formulation, or systematic exhibition of what has been 
 learned, (1) The respective form images are to be drawn by the 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 131 
 
 children in a geographical blank-book. In this way the pupil 
 elaborates his own maps. In the third grade, the maps should 
 be somewhat exact. It will assist if the board maps are drawn 
 on a surface marked off into squares, and if the blank-books are 
 likewise ruled. Self-made atlases are the first step to the printed 
 maps, which the pupil should not have in hand until the upper 
 classes are reached. 
 
 (2) Catch-words may also be written in the books to assist the 
 memory. 
 
 (C.) 
 (4) Application. — Drill. — This stage should show that the 
 new general truths, learned in the stage of presentation and 
 summed up in B, are completely mastered, in themselves and in 
 relation to what was formerly learned. The following exercises 
 will i^rove helpful here : — 
 
 (1) Drawing of the sketch from memory, eventually in con- 
 nection with what has been learned before. The geographical, 
 forms must have become so fixed in the pupil's mind that he is 
 able to represent them by lines. Drawing is therefore the " Writ- 
 ing of geographical thoughts." (Delitsch.) 
 
 (2) Imaginary journeys. 
 
 (3) Profile drawings. 
 
 (4) It is an excellent means to work out the given geographical 
 tract in sand, or in clay. 
 
 (5) Explanation of pictures by the children (Miinchener und 
 Stuttgarter Bilderbogen ; Brdunlich tend Schmidt, Aus aller Herrn 
 Lander, Leipzig; Oeographische Characterbilder vo7i Holzel in 
 Wien; Gcographische^Bildcrtafel von Ilirl in Breslati ; die Leh- 
 mannschcn Bilder; die landschaftlichen Characterbilder von Kirch- 
 hoff und Supau, Kasscl ; etc.). 
 
 (6) Reading of descriptions in reading-books ; the writing of 
 descriptions. 
 
132 THE ESSENTIALS OF METHOD. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 § 59. Course of an oral history lesson in middle and 
 lower classes. (Dr. Frick, Lehrprohen und Lehrgdnge, Heft 
 6, p. 106.) 
 
 (A.) 
 
 (1) Preparation. — First observation (inner) and apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 (a) Connection with former lessons by means of questions 
 which, reaching back, gather up those points which will serve as 
 transition to, and i3reparation for, the new lesson. 
 
 (6) Announcement of the purpose of the lesson. 
 
 (c) Introductory remarks. These remarks take their rise from 
 the pupiPs world of experience. Suppose, for instance, the 
 pupils know the story of the Argonautic expedition, and now come 
 to the journey of Columbus. It is evident that to call the former 
 to mind will increase the interest in the latter. The effort must 
 always be to bridge the gulf which separates the distant deed and 
 its foreign world from the present and the experience of the 
 pupil. 
 
 (2) Presentation. — Concrete, vivid nari'ation by the teacher, 
 of the elements of historical life, the stao-es of the action, and what 
 is characteristic in them. These things must be brought clearly 
 to view in separate subdivisions (method- wholes) , that there may 
 be a clear apprehension of the lesson as a whole. For this pur- 
 pose it is well, at the close of each section, for the teacher, assisted 
 by the pupils, to sum up the chief contents of the section in con- 
 densed headings, which are to be drilled upon both now and after- 
 wards. It will be well to have the pupils record these in their 
 note-books. 
 
 (B.) 
 
 (3) For gaining a deeper insight. — (a) Placing together of 
 all the written headings, as well as the teacher's whole plan of the 
 lesson, as a guide to the impression upon the mind of all that is 
 to be held. 
 
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 133 
 
 (b) Fuller apprehension of the individual facts by comparing, 
 uniting, and grouping the various elements of the given narration. 
 
 (c) Bringing out of the main points by concentration questions. 
 An example from the seventh grade — Greater method-whole — 
 The Trojan War. Separation into smaller unities : (1) The inner 
 cause, outer occasion, participants in the war, departure and land- 
 ing. (2) The battles about Troy. (3) The capture and destruc- 
 tion of the city. Consequences. Suppose the story of the bat- 
 tles has been given. We should ask at the close of the narration 
 concerning the following points : (1) The seat of war (kingdom 
 and city of Priam ; plain of Scamander, picture of the city) ; (2) 
 Actors. Since the Achaian leaders are known from the first sec- 
 tion, we have now to do with the increase to the Trojan side, 
 Priam and his house. Parallels : Priam and Agamemnon. (Dif- 
 ference : Priam the ruler of a large empire, and the patriarchal 
 head of a royal family ; Agamemnon the military leader of nu- 
 merous tribes). Hector and Achilles, Menelaus and Paris, Helen 
 and Chalcas, etc. (3) Actions. Pictures of the war. General 
 engagements and duels. Groups of the latter (Battle of Paris 
 and Menelaus, Ajax and Hector, Achilles and Hector). Pictures 
 of cessation from war: Councils (quarrel of Agamemnon and 
 Achilles). Ambassadors. Parting of Hector and Andromache, 
 etc. Special increase of new and unknown elements of historical 
 life, of ethical character (lamentable fate of Hector), etc. 
 
 (C.) 
 
 (4) Practice. — Drill. — Application. — Connected recitation 
 of individual points (series formation). Repetition of the con- 
 densed headings in connection. Recitation of smaller sections 
 in full and connected form, — all to show an understanding of 
 tlie whole, which is now deepened and made clear. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY