^
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Cldis
THE PROBLEM OF METHOD,
BY
HOWARD SANDISON,
Department of Psychology, Indiana State Normal Schooi
TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA.
terre haute, ind.
THE inland publishing COMPANY.
1904.
uTb
\0^\
c^^3
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY
HOWARD SANDISON.
C. W. BROWN, PRINTER AND BINDER.
TERRE HAUTE, IND.
PREFACE.
In this volume it is the intention to consider Method as
essentially the psychological process of the pupil in ob-
taining possession of the subject - matter. Method in its
general aspect is identified, not with the psychological
processes in their diversit}" and as they appear upon the
surface. It is identified with the fundamental movement
of the self, w^hich, upon reflective introspection, reveals
itvSelf in each of the diverse processes, such as Sense - per-
ception. Memory, etc.
It is then to be shown that this fundamental mental move-
ment specialized by the activity of the mind upon the special
subject-matter of an}^ given branch of study is the core of
the method of that subject.
The three different views as to the nature of Method
and their relative importance are to be given brief consider-
ation, and the idea of special method is to be illustrated
with the subject of Language.
1:^1243
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page.
CHAPTER I.
THE KvSSENTIAI. IDEA OF METHOD. 6
CHAPTER n.
THE DIFFICUI.TY OF THE PROBLEM. 8
CHAPTER III.
THE REM. PROVINCE OF METHOD. 15
Indi-stinctness as to Scope 15
Ground of the Indistinctness 15
Objective Method 16
Subjective Method 19
CHAPTER IV.
SPECIAI, METHOD. 25
CHAPTER V.
VARIOUS USES OF THE TERM METHOD. 39
General Meanings 89
Popular Meanings 40
Educational Meanings 54
Pedagogical Meanings 84
CHAPTER VI.
METHOD IN A BRANCH OF STUDY. 120
The Essential Features of Organization in a Branch of Study . 120-121
Method in Composition 121
Organizing Principle 121
The vScope 121
The Divisions 121
ii TABLE OF Contents
The Relative Importance of the Divisions 122
The Psychological Process of the Learner 122-129
The Mental Effects Produced by Composition 129-130
The Devices in Composition 180
The Course of Study in Composition 180-151
First and Second Grades 180-185
Third Grade 186-188
Fourth Grade 188-142
Fifth Grade 148-148
Sixth Grade 148-151
Special Devices or Means 151-152
In Appendix 194-231
CHAPTER A'll.
METHOD IN A LKSSON.. 158
The Essential P^lements 168
The Principle Underlying the lyesson— Self-determination ... 154
Its Stages 154-155
The Objectifying Process 155-157
The Subjectifying Process 157-180
The Structure of a Lesson 180-198
APPENDIX.
SERIES OF SENTENCES EXPRESSING THE STAGES IN
VARIOUS ACTIVITIES. 194
Examples 194-210
The Process in Constructing a Series of Sentences .... 210-214
Auxiliary Work 214-281
CHAPTER I.
THE ESSENTIAL IDEA OF METHOD.
Mr. Andrewes was a good scholar, and (quite another
matter) a good teacher.
Mrs. E WING — A Flat Iron for A Farthing .
It may be said that the subject of Method is just as capa-
ble of assuming the form of a distinct science as is any other,
one of the subjects dealing with truth, such as Physics,
Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Grammar, History, &c., for
the reason that the sources of its principles and its central
principle are perfectly definite. The principles arise, on the
one hand, from the nature of the subject to be taught, and on
the other hand, from the nature of the mind to be educated.
Method itself may be said to be the mental activity of the
learner, specialized by activity upon the object being studied.
The doctrine of Method has been compactly stated as fol-
lows : "The fact in the thing ; the law in the mind ; the
method in both."^ Close study will give a fuller and a more
definite meaning to **the fact in the thing; the law in the
mind, and the method in both."
" The fact in the thing" will come to mean some fact of
a subject unified by having one of its attributes emphasized,
and the other attributes subordinated to this emphasized at-
tribute by the interest of the mind. For example, ''the
fact in the thing," in Geology, may be a mountain range,
with its attribute of growth or becoming emphasized by the
* Wm. a. Jones, first President of the Indiana State Normal School — From i8;o
to 1879.
6 The Probi^em of Method.
interest of the mind. All of the other attributes of the
mountain, thereby become subordinated to this one attri-
bute of growth, and are considered only to the degree in
^hich they contribute in making it clear.
' ' The law in the mind ' ' will come to mean the great
truth that the mind, in considering any fact, as for example
the mountain range, seizes it first indistinctly, that is, some-
what in the form of blind feeling ; that second as thought, it
analyzes the object under consideration into its definite ele-
ments, rather isolating each element as if it were complete
in itself ; that third as thought, concentrating its attention
upon the isolated attributes, it determines which is thepre-
dominant one. This unifying process is continued by con-
sidering each other element as revealing or bearing upon this
predominant attribute ^ thus re-unifying the isolated ele-
ments. Finally, through repeated consideration of the ob-
ject in these relations, this organized, unified v-iew.of.it
becomes habit, and thereby sinks into feeling again* becom-
ing thus truly the self. In other words, * ' the law of the
mind ' ' will come to mean the fundamental three-fold move-
ment of mind, (movements three and four being essentially
one. ) This movement is the mind's growth in freedom from
blind feeling through definite analysis and organized re-
unifying to enlightened feeling.
' ' The method in both ' ' will come to mean this funda-
mental movement of mind specialized by having as its sub-
ject-matter or content some fact of a branch of study with
one of its attributes emphasized by the mind's interest, and
all the others subordinated through this interest to that
attribute. The method in a subject, then, is a mental move-
ment ; it is not, however, a mental movement considered ab-
stractly, that is, apart from any content. Its content is the
particular object, attribute, or relation being investigated.
This renders the mental act specific or particular.
The Problem of Method. 7
If the foregoing presents the correct view, a method can-v
not be invented ; it can only be discovered. It can never
become a personal thing to be carried about with one and
' 'applied' ' to a subject. If one does view method as a some-,
thing which can be carried about and applied to a subject,
it is likel}^ to shut out the light of that subject as did the
Extinguisher which the spirit in Dickens's Christmas Carol
applied to the spirit of Christmas.
The PROBI.KM OF Method.
CHAPTER 11.
THE DIFFICULTY OF THE PROBLEM.
It would seem then that the subject of Method presents a
very real problem. This is much at variance with the usual
notion, which is that the subject of Method is a very simple,
superficial branch of study having a problem easy of solu-
tion. The problem of Method is, however, more difiicult
than merely gaining a knowledge of helpful devices. It is
both difiicult and important on the assumption that the one
who is to gain a knowledge of method in the subject does
not clearly possess the organizing idea or principle of that
branch of study nor the close organization of the material
of the branch of study upon the organizing principle.
The reasons for considering the problem of Method to be
both difficult and important are that a true insight into the
nature of method in any given subject, involves :
1. In addition to the academic view of the subject
gained in Common School, High School, Academy or College,
a thorough knowledge of the organizing principle of the
branch of study to be taught, and a close organization of the
subject on that principle.
2. In addition to the academic view of the subject of
Psychology obtained in High School, Academy or College, a
thorough knowledge of the central principle of mental life
and of the organization of mental phenomena upon this
principle.
3. A knowledge of the mental process necessary in gain-
ing a knowledge of the subject.
The Problem of Method. 9
4. A knowledge of the following important truth : In
themselves facts belong to no subject. They belong merely
to the universe. Each fact has a large number of relations;
a large number of attributes. Considering the fact in itself,
an3^ one of these attributes is just as important as any other.
a. The first process in determining the method in
any branch of study is the act of discovering the character-
istic attribute of the facts of the subject. What this attri-
bute is, has been determined, to an extent by the value the
race has attached to the facts of the subject. In order to
render any attribute the essential one of the fact, the mind
must withdraw its attention temporarily from the other attri-
butes and center it upon this one. Thereupon the mind's
interest centers in this attribute, and the purpose arises to
consider the fact with all of its other attributes in relation
to this attribute, and so to consider all similar facts. If this
is general, it causes the subject to assume definite shape.
Prior to the emphasizing of this attribute, the facts of the
subject were known to the mind only crudely ; indefinitely.
The one attribute, however, having been emphasized, as for
example, the attribute oi groivth, of becomiyig, in the moun-
tain range, the subject acquires in consequence, a core, a
unity, an organizing principle. It now for the first time
possesses a distinguishing mark. All facts viewed with
reference to this attribute now belong within this subject,
even if they may be at other times facts of another subject.
They cannot, however, be facts of another subject at the
same time that they are facts of this subject. They cannot
in this other subject possess the same relations and the same
emphasis of relations that they do in this.
With this emphasized attribute in mind as the central
truth of the subject, the student of any subject is able to
determine definitely :
b. The scope of the subject.
10 Thk Problem of Method.
c. The divisions and sub-divisions of the subject.
d. The relative importance of the divisions, sub-
divisions and separate facts.
e. A knowledge of the successive movements or steps
that would be taken by the mind of the learner in mastering
any one of the facts of the subject in such a way as to bring
into prominence the attribute around which the mind's inter-
est centers. Method, essentially, is just this act of the
pupil's mind rendering subjective a particular fact of a given
subject. These movements may be viewed in two ways :
(1). The steps in any given case may be seen to
be what has been termed above, the fundamental movement
of mind ; i. e. , grasping a thing indefinitely; analyizing it
into definite elements; reunifying these isolated elements in-
to an organized, differentiated unity; repeating this thought
of the.- organized unity in such a large variety of forms that
through habit it is at last transmuted into enlightened feel-
ing, thereby becoming a part of the individual himself.
It is seen that the mastery of this view of the movement
necessarily belongs to the systematic study of Psychology
itself. This movement is, in truth, the organizing idea in
educational Psychology. Hence it indicates the true scope
of the subject, its divisions, the relative importance of the
divisions, etc.
(2). The other view of the steps to be taken by
the mind of the learner, is what may be termed a special
view. The special steps are this fourfold fundamental move-
ment of mind specialized by the particular subject-matter of
the branch of study. For example, the special steps in
studying the mountain range as a fact in Geology, are :
(a). The indistinct, indefinite comprehension
of the mountain range as to its growth, as to its becoming.
This may involve sense-perception, memory, imagination,
&c.
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 11
(b). Definite analysis of the facts or elements
involved in the mountain range viewed as to its process of
becoming. This involves the isolation of the prominent
attribute — the process of becoming — the isolation of all
other attributes, as locality, length, direction, height, pres-
ent condition of structure, &c., and the distinct considera-
tion of each. This may involve memory, abstraction, com-
parison, imagination, &c.
(c). Re-unifying, i. e., considering each of the
isolated elements as to its bearing on the central attribute —
the process of becoming.
(d). Such varied and repeated thinking of this
organized unity as will result in habit ; that is, in trans-
muting this thought of the organized unity into feeling —
not, however, into blind feeling, since the feeling here indi-
cated arises after definite analysis and definite re-unifying.
The mental movement here indicated under (2) is the
core of the problem of Method. Method in Geology is this
specialized mental process required in order to understand
clearly the mountain range in its process of becoming. In
order to see clearly what the method is, one must be able to
see it first as the general movement. He is then to compre-
hend it as specialized through the definite subject-matter.
As soon as the general movement has become specialized,
one is able to see the different activities of mind involved in
each of the four general steps. Thus he is able to see
whether Geology involves observation, memory, induction,
&c.
f . A knowledge of the mental effect produced in the
learner. While this eitect may be prominentl}^ intellectual,
emotional, or volitional, it is always all three ; that is, the
whole mental . being is affected by the truth studied and by
the process of studying it. One who understands the pro-
blem of Method must be able to set clearly before himself
12 The Probi^em of Method.
the effect to be produced upon the mind of the learner by
the investigation of an}^ given subject. The first effect to
be noted is the habit resulting from acting the distinctive
act of the subject, as the grammar act, the geography act.
g. A knowledge of the means, that is, of the outside
instrumentalities, or devices. These are of two kinds — gen-
eral and special. The general is the Course of Study. The
special includes laboratories, and all modes of procedure in
laboratory work; field work; questions; illustrations; work
with maps; written examinations; discussion of examination
papers, lectures, &c. The things referred to under "g"
constitute that which is usually in mind when one speaks of
Method. It is, however, only one feature of Method, and
its external feature.
In order to understand this last, one must not only be
aware of the external means themselves, appropriate to the
subject; but he must also see the reasons underlying their
use, and the order of their use. It will be noted that "4"
of the thoughts indicated on the ninth page ma}^ be regarded
as a feature of "1" on the eighth page. It therefore appears
that there are two ways of dealing w'ith the subject in
order to gain a knowledge of it. In the first mode the
learner, having, even in the beginning, a vSomewhat crude
view as to the facts that belong under the subject, enters at
once upon an examination of the facts. Gradually he be-
comes aware of their various relations, and on the basis of
these relations groups them into divisions and sub-divisions.
He thereby gains a knowledge of the relations within the
subject, and of the general relations of this subject to other
subjects. The second mode of dealing with the subject in-
cludes all of these indicated under the first, and in addition,
the more scientific process of seeking first the organizing
principle of the subject; deriving from this a knowledge of
the scope of the subject; of the divisions and sub-divisions.
The Problem of Method. 13
and of the relative emphasis of the divisions, sub-divisions,
and facts. This central truth arises from the mind's (the
race's) interest or purpose. The second, and higher knowl-
ledge of the subject. thus indicated, implies that the teacher
and the learner knows :
a. That the subject acquires its core — its central
truth — from the mind's interest in a given attribute.
b. What this given attribute is.
c. The mental process in making any given attri-
bute the predominant one of the subject.
The study of the subject of Psychology has the same two
modes of examination. It will be seen that the second of
the two thoughts indicated in "1" on page 8 — the knowl-
edge of the branch of study, and the second thought under
"2" of the same page — the knowledge of Psycholog}^ are
not really elements in Method, strictly considered. They
are, however, aspects of pedagogical work. In ''e" on page
10, Method itself is found. It will also be evident that "e'*
and "f" — the mental steps in mastering any given fact in a
subject, and the effect to be produced upon the mind of the
learner, constitute the basis for "g" or the seventh point —
the outward means; the devices. The question now arises
as to the requisites in order to be able to make substantial
progress in discovering the method in any given branch of
study. One often speaks of a specialistin a branch of study
as having these requisites.
He has very important qualifications. He does not, how-
ever, seem to possess full qualifications. Sometimes one
speaks of the specialist in Psychology who has only a gene-
ral understanding of the nature of the branch of study to be
taught, as the one fitted to discover the method in that sub-
ject. He does possess a very important qualification, but as
previously indicated, method cannot be "invented;" it is al-
already there. It is to be discovered ; it cannot be discov-
14 The Probi^em of Method.
ered in isolation from a sytematic knowledge of the subject.
One cannot evolve the method in Geolog\^ out of inner con-
sciousness, and then in the usual terms, "apply it" to Geol-
ogy. It seems incredible that any one has ever entertained
the notion that the method of a branch of study can be dis-
covered apart from and in ignorance of the branch of study..
It seems equally incredible, that it can be discovered in
ignorance of the nature of the law of mind, of the conse-
quent stages of mental development, &c., even by one w^ho
is an expert in the branch of study. A branch of study,
as Physics or Chemistry, does not consist merely of facts ; it
consists of known facts organized on a special interest or pur-
pose of the human mind. The attribute of these facts em-
phasized by this special interest or purpose of the human
mind becomes, therefore, the distinguishing mark of the
facts and the key to its method.
The one best fitted, then, to discover the method in Phy-
sics, Chemistry or any other branch of stud\ , is the one
who has become a specialist in both the branch of study it-
self and Psychology. This w^ouid give the ideal conditions.
On account of the comprehensiveness of such conditions, it
is very difficult to possess them. The aim is to approxi-
mate these ideal conditions more and more each year. The
problem of Method, can, however, be solved to a helpful
degree, even by those who know of the branch of study
only enough to secure a good grade of license to teach ; and
who know of mind only that which would come from close
observation of their own mental activities, from close obser-
vation of those of children as indicated by their words and
outward actions, and from a brief course in systematic study
of Psychology. It can be solved to a highly helpful de-
gree by those students who have done all this, and who in
addition have given a year or more to a systematic study of
the branches of knowledge and of Psychology from the
pedagogical attitude.
The Problem of Method. 15
CHAPTER III.
THE REAL PROVINCE OF METHOD.
INDISTINCTNESS AS TO SCOPE.
In this case the mere expression — the Real Province of
Method — is itself significant. It implies that the boundary
line between the realm of method and that of something else
is indistinct. That something else may be scholarship ; it
may be the reahn of means ; of external appliances ; of de-
vices. In the title there is the implication that method is,
or has been, occupying an unreal, fictitious province. This
fictitiousness may arise from the fact that scholarship is
wanting, and that the attempt to determine a set of princi-
ples to control in that given realm, in which scholarship is
wanting, results in an unreal province for method. Outer
doing, devices, external means, with little or no attention
to the truths that underlie them, may be pres.sed to the front
as method. This would constitute a fictitious province for
method. Scholarship alone, may be exalted as if it were all
in all. In that case method would not possess its real pro-
vince. It means that an indistinctness prevails as to the
true realm of method. To remove this indistinctness is the
problem.
GROUND OF THE INDISTINCTNESS.
It is but natural that a certain indefiniteness, that a given
degree of indistinctness should prevail as to the real province
of method, in distinction from that of both scholarship and
external means. The reason for this is that activity is the
one thing to be found in the universe. Sometimes one
16 The Problem of Method.
speaks of a thing and of activity upon it. But what is the
thing itself other than activity ? A block of compact steel
seems perfectly motionless, yet every atom in it has a space
of its own, and exists in a continual dance. Thus it is with
every atom in the hardest granite. It seems, therefore, that
only activity is. This activity rises from its most passive
form as space, until it becomes an activity that can become
aware of itself, as in consciousness. Scholarship, then, con-
cerns itself with activity, and with activity only. Method,
too, must deal with activity, and with that alone. The
realm of device, of external means, is also one of doing ; of
activit}^ In this fact — that device is activity, that method
deals with and is activity, that the subject-matter of scholar-
ship is activity — rests the source of the indistinctness as to
their respective provinces.
OBJECTIVE METHOD.
The activity that scholarship investigates appears in ever-
recurring types. This activity may, therefore, appropri-
ately take unto itself the term method. Every branch of
study investigates activity as type or law ; and law is
method, and method is law. The past makes us its debtor
by handing over to us this thought in the very term method
itself. The word method signifies according to a way. But
what is it that is according to a way ? And what is meant
by a way? If the thought above presented, viz., that there
is nothing in the universe other than activity, then it must
be activity that is according- to a way. And, moreover, the
.way itself is necessarily an activity. Then it becomes clear
that the past transfers to us this thought which it had
garnered from the fields of experience — a method is an ac-
tivity according to, or in harmon}^ with, activity, The first
activity mentioned must be the real one, the one actually
occurring; the one exhibiting itself in some product. The
The PROBI.KM OF Method. 17
second activity referred to mUvSt be the ideal one ; the typi-
cal activity ; the norm ; it is both the end and the criterion
of the real activity ; of the one that is actually occurring.
A method, then, is a real activity according to, and in har-
mony with an ideal activity. It now becomes somewhat
more clear that close thought only will render distinct the
provinces of scholarship, method and devices, and likewise
their unity.
Ever}^ branch of study has for its subject-matter certain
particulars, certain phenomena that are essentially its own.
These phenomena may appear in other branches, of study as
well as in this one, but they do not appear in those other
branches in the same aspect that they do in this. The cot-
ton plant appears as a fact in geography. It is also present
as one of the phenomena considered in botany. As a geo-
graphical fact, however, it is not identical with itself as a
botanical fact. If in this sense each branch of study has its
own set of particulars, the activity that produces any one
of these particulars must be typical. Why does one in look-
ing at a piece of sandstone say, This is not a good speci-
men ? It is because the activity that produced it was not
according to the type ; to the ideal. The activity that pro-
duces the facts in history or in geology, must be activity
according to the type ; according to the ideal. Hence, in
this sense, activity is a method. The activity that produces
a grammatical fact, the activity that produces a geograph-
ical fact, the activity that produces a historical fact is a
method, because it is an activity which has as its end and
criterion an ideal. Identity with this ideal must be the end
of the activity, and the ideal is its criterion. It is with such
a thought in mind that one says. This is not truly a geo-
graphical fact ; that is not really a grammatical fact ; that
ought not to be termed a historical fact. There is, then, a
method in the subject^ and this method is the activity that
18 The Problem of Method.
produces the individuals composing the subject-matter.
Such activity is in the realm of scholarship.
The problem in a given branch of study is to investigate
the nature of the activity that produces its facts ; to deter-
mine the various phases thereof and their relations to one
another. For example, the noun is a fact in grammar. The
activity that produces it is different from the activity that
produces the lily of the valley. Grammar must investigate
the first activity, botany the second. Each branch of study
is, however, an investigation of the method that creates the
individuals in its subject-matter. This activity may be
termed the objective method.
Every branch of study, therefore, has its objective method.
By this is meant the method, the activity, the force, the en-
ergy that produces the different individuals composing the
subject-matter. For example, the subject of reading has
what may be termed its objective method. This is the en-
ergy, the force, the activity required to produce the various
individuals in the subject-matter ; such as *' Thanatopsis, "
''Evangeline," '' The Burial of Sir John Moore," "The
lyCgend of Sleepy Hollow," &c. Grammar has its objec-
tive method. This is the activity, the energy, the force
that creates the various individuals included in the subject-
matter of grammar; as, the noun, the adverb, the preposi-
tion, &c. History as a branch of study has its objective
method. This is the activity, the energy, the force that cre-
ated the various individuals in the subject-matter, as, the
battle of Bunker Hill, the Hartford Convention, the Seces-
sion Ordinance, &c. The investigation of such activities
and their products, is within the realm of scholarship.
When scholarship has revealed the essential nature of this
activity — this objective method of the subject — it has
grasped the true basis from which may be inferred three im-
portant things.
The Problem of Method. 19
Scope. — One of these is the scope of the subject-matter.
It is the function of scholarship to determine this — to decide
what facts belong within the range of the subject, and what
ones are excluded.
Divisions and snb- divisions. — Another important thing that
is to be inferred is the divisions within this subject-matter.
The academic work in any branch of study, therefore, after
making clear the scope of the subject, infers from the na-
ture of the creative activity the divisions and sub-divisions
belonging to the subject-matter, carrying such down to the
particulars.
Relative Importance. — It is the function of academic work
to investigate the relative importance of divisions, sub-divi-
sions and particulars. This is the third inference. The
general knowledge of the subject and these four specific
lines of investigation may be said to belong to the field of
scholarship. Scholarship does not, however, as a rule, de-
vote itself to the special topics mentioned. It accepts the
scope, divisions, etc., from tradition or imposes them exter-
nally. It does not develop them from the organizing prin-
ciple. The fact that academic work is of this nature, prac-
tically transfers these four topics to Method,
SUBJECTIVE METHOD.
The Mental Steps. — In academic investigation the subject-
matter is assumed to be a fact distinct from the examining
mind; but as just stated there constantly arises a peculiar
set of questions, such as : What is the relative value of this
division compared with that? Of this sub-division com-
pared with that ? Of this particular compared with that ?
Then it becomes evident that there is a factor to be consid-
ered over against all this with which scholarship has seemed
to concern itself, and this factor is the mind which is to do
20 The ProbIvKm of Method.
the investigating. When one says, What is the relative
vahie of this fact as compared with that ?, he evidently
means the relative value to the investigator, arising from
making subjective, from making an element of his conscious-
ness, this fact, as compared with doing the same with that
fact. When this inquiry arises, one begins to pass from the
realm of scholarship over into the real province of Method.
For in such inquiry what is hinted ? A second activity, a
new activity. The activity that produces any fact in the
subject of botany may be termed the objective method in
botany. But here is another activity — the activity which
renders this fact of botany subjective to the inquiring mind;
the activity which transmutes the external fact of botany
into self, into consciousness.
This activity is distinctive; that is, the act of conscious-
ness which transmutes a fact of botany into self, has distin-
guishing marks that set it off from the activity which ren-
ders a fact of geology an element of consciousness. The
activity that produces a fact, in the subject of physics, is the
objective method in physics ; but the activity of the in-
quiring mind necessary to make this fact of physics sub-
jective, necessary to make it an element of self, of conscious-
ness, is the subjective method in physics.
Every branch of study, therefore, has both its objective
and its subjective method. The objective method is the
activity, energy, or force that produces the various individ-
uals that constitute its subject-matter. The subjective
method is the activity of mind necessary to transmute into
the self any one of these facts of the subject-matter. The
investigation of this subjective method, is within the real
province of Method. For example, the activity that pro-
duces the various facts in the subject of botany is the ob-
jective method in botany, and is within the realm of schol-
arship. The scope of the facts determined, is also in the
The Problem of Method. 21
realm of scholarship; as are likewise the divisions, the sub-
divisions and the distinctions and unities of the particulars.
But the nature of the activity that the mind performs in
mastering any one of these facts, and the relative value of
the divivsions and sub-divisions of facts, because of the na-
ture of this mental activity, — these things are in the real
province of Method.
When in the subject of Method, one has determined the
essential nature of this conscious activity put forth by the
inquiring mind in mastering a fact of the subject, two im-
portant inferences may be made. These inferences belong
also to the real province of Method, and the examination of
the things inferred falls likewise within that province.
What are the things to be inferred from the nature of the
mind's activity in mastering a fact of a given subject?
Mental Effects. — The first is the effect produced upon the
mind b}^ thinking this fact ; by identifying itself with it.
This effect appears first as a definite mental process — a cer-
tain habitude of mind which the given subject alone is fitted
to establish. For example, in language the definite mental
process begins with the conceiving of an object. The mind
may first seize the object in sense-perception, memory, im-
agination, but it ends by conceiving it, b}^ generalizing it.
The next movement is the forming of a purpose to express
the object to another. Thereupon, the mind images the
expression and then contemplates the harmony, or corres-
pondence between the object to be expressed, and the expres-
sion. No subject other than language is fitted to establish
just this habitude ; just this mental process. This may be
termed the language act.
There is also the historical act. In such an act the mind
first conceives the disposition, the mental condition of the
people. This is succeeded by the consideration of the event
22 The Problem of Method.
or object produced by this condition of the minds of the
people. In the third place the mind becomes aware of the
new disposition, of the new mental state belonging to the
people as produced by the creation and the contemplation
of this event. In the historical act, then, any event, as for
example, the Civil War, appears as the result of a certain
state of mind in the people ; and as a stimulus to a succeed-
ing result in their minds. To conceive a certain state of the
public mind, to apprehend this taking shape in some event
or statute ; to seize the new state of the public mind as an
effect of contemplating this event or statute, is the peculiar
mental process in the subject of history. This central effect,
this essential process belonging to every subject, is one of the
effects to be studied. The determination of the exact nature
of this effect in relation to any given subject, belongs to the
real province of Method.
Under effect is to be noted also the emotional response.
In history there arises an interest in the state of the public
mind, in the event to be produced thereby, and in the reflex
influence of this event. Just the nature of this, the various
opportunities that life affords for its play, and its value com-
pared with the knowledge of specific gravity and with other
ideas and emotions — the discussion of all such things be-
longs under the real province of Method. It would pertain
to the subject of Method to determine the main and the sub-
ordinate emotions to be awakened by the study of Dickens's
"Hard Times;" by the study of "Evangeline;" by the
perusal, in Dante's "Divine Comedy," of the lines setting
forth the condition of the angry and the sullen. The occa-
sions in life affording opportunity for the exercise of these
feelings and the relative value of such mental states com-
pared with a knowledge of cube root, with a knowledge of
the surface of the United States, &c., would belong under
the realm of Method.
The Problem of Method. 23
A third thing to be noted under effect is the volitional
development — the tendency to a prompt and decisive choice,
and to persistence in that choice. It would belong to the
subject of Method to determine just what tendencies toward
choice and toward perseverance in a given course would be
awakened and stimulated by a study of the condition of
the inhabitants in the vestibule to the Inferno — by a study
of Tito, in George Eliot's "Romola," as an example of
fixation of character — by a study of Taylor's persistence
in the Mexican War, and Grant's in the Civil War. Method
would also seek to determine the various occasions in life
that would call for prompt choosing and persistence, and
the value of such mental traits along with those arising from
the study of book-keeping, compound numbers, &c.
In Method, then, occurs the examination and valua-
tion of the entire realm of effects produced upon the self in
its mastery of the facts of any subject. In this is seen the
value to the teacher arising from a study of such subjects as
Aesthetics, Ethics, L^ogic, Psychology and Philosophy.
The main mental process in mastering a subject gives the
ke}^ to the relative educational value as a subject — its value
as a subject compared with other subjects.
Means. — The second thing to be inferred from the main
mental process employed in mastering a given subject, is
the means, devices, or instrumentalities appropriate to the
direction and stimulation of this mental process — appropri-
ate ta the awakening and fixing of the mental effects natur-
ally belonging to the subject. This includes a considera-
tion of the teacher himself ; of the range of his scholarship ;
of his disposition ; of the trend of his sympathies ; of the
harmony of his character ; of his industry ; of his quick-
ness of insight ; of his ability as a questioner ; of his spirit
as an enquirer, and of the relation of all these qualities to the
24 Thk Problem of Mkthod.
stimulating and directing of the mental process in the learner.
Under this topic is included not only the determining of the
devices, but also the deciding of the order of their employ-
ment and the grounds therefor.
It seems, therefore, that to every branch of study belong
not only an objective method, or the activity which creates
the individuals of the subject-matter, a scope or range of the
subject-matter, various divisions, subdivisions, and attri-
butes of distinction and unity in the particulars ; but also a
subjective viethod, viz, , the mental activity involved in master-
ing any fact of the subject-matter, together with the effects,
relative value and instrumentalities to be inferred therefrom.
The real province of scholarship includes all that pertains
to the objective method and its inferences; and the real
province of Method includes all found in the subjective
method and the inferences essentially involved therein.
Usually, however, in pedagogical schools, the process of
discovering the organizing principle of the branch of study
and the internal organization of the subject from its organ-
izing. principle, thereby revealing as developments from this
principle the scope, the divisions and subdivisions, and the
relative importance of divisions, subdivisions and facts, has
to be assumed as an element of pedagogical training, be-
cause scholarship has, often, approached the branch of study
from the outside, ignoring its internal development. It is
not infrequent that the presence of any one organizing prin-
ciple is denied or that the value of knowing it is questioned,
even if the subject be admitted to possess such a principle.
How a branch of study can be a science except on the condi-
tion that a single organizing principle unifies all of its facts
is not clear. Nor is it clear why the discovery of this
principle and the genetic organization of the subject from
it is not the predominant trend of work after the student
has the elementary knowledge of the facts of the subject.
The Problem of Method. 25
CHAPTER IV.
SPECIAL METHOD.
The clearest idea as to the nature of method arises, pro-
bably, from an examination of the process in a particular act
of learning. The general aspect of this appears as the fun-
damental movement of consciousness. This fundamental
movement is essentially three-fold, but it may be viewed as
consisting of four phases, inasmuch as iteration, resulting
in instinctive habit may close the three-fold movement.
The procCvSs is not, however, four acts ; it is a united activ-
ity consisting of three phases and a repetition of these.
The four avSpects of the process of learning are :
1. Becoming aware of the object being studied as an un-
differentiated unit}^ In this phase the mind apprehends
the distinctions belonging to the object dimly, in the form
of feeling, as it were. The truth of the object is present to
the mind as a mere presentiment. This any one can dis-
cover by examinining with care the state of mind belonging
to him when first giving attention to any strange object.
2. Knowing clearly the distinctions in the object, re-
garding each one as isolated.
As the first was the state of immediacy, the paradisaical
condition of undisturbed harmony, so this second phase is
the stage of negation ; of limit ; of determinations. In the
first a dim synthesis was made. In this clear analysis ap-
pears. The mind has passed from the simple state of para-
dise into that of discord, opposition, difference. The self
In regard to presentiment as a first phase in knowledge, see Dewey's Psychol-
ogy, pp. 306-307.
26 The Probi^km of Method.
being essentially a unity is, therefore, dissatisfied with this
diversity, and hence seeks unity — not, however, the undis-
turbed unity of the first phase.
3. Discriminating the isolated elements, inferring the
dominant characteristic and organizing all the other ele-
ments according to their bearing upon this main attribute.
Thus the mind returns, as it were, to paradise ; but not to
the paradise of immediacy. This stage is, it is manifest,
one of synthesis ; but since it is a sjmthesis following clear
analysis, it is a much higher unity than the one grasped in
the first phase. If paradise was lost in the second phase of
the mind's process, it is more than regained in this third
stage.
4. A re-thinking of the organized unity discovered in
the third phase under varying conditions and illustrations,
until the mode of activity, by passing into habit, becomes in-
stinctive and hence truly the self. It thus appears that the
mind's method in learning any object is an activity consist-
ing of four phases. It is true that the fourth aspect could
succeed either the first phase or the second, since either of
these could become habit. This, however, would be a con-
dition of arrested development. To avoid arrested develop-
ment the mind in considering any object must consider it
under the four aspects indicated, not permitting habit to
arise at the conclusion of either the first or the second
phase. The mind seems naturally to tend to examine any
object by a concrete activity consisting of the four phases in-
dicated. This involves the assumption that every object is
essentially a unity manifesting various attributes.
In order to render the knowledge of this fundamental
process in learning more definite, attention will be given to
the assumption that every object is a unity revealing itself
in various attributes. I^et the following sentence be re-
The Problem of Method. 27
garded as an object or unity exhibiting various attributes
and parts :
"I hear Aztec priests upon their teocallis
Beat the wild war drums made of serpent's skin."
This is the object which the mind is supposed to be con-
sidering in an act of learning. The object is a unity in
both form and content. In content it is a unity in that
it expresses a single object, viz : the person expressed
by the first word as exhibiting himself in a given act. The
special act is indicated by all the sentence following the
word expressing the actor. In this portion of the sen-
tence there is expressed a central attribute — that of hear-
ing. This action has as its object that denoted by all
that portion of the sentence beginning with the word
Aztec. This object of the action expressed by the word
"hear," has also its unity, namely, the mode of action
characteristic of the object expressed by the word "priests;"
that is, a person who is termed a priest is viewed as one
habitually revealing himself in a certain mode of activity.
This central element exhibits or reveals itself in the given
case through various distinctions. One of these is expressed
by the word "Aztec," another by the expression "upon
their teocallis ; " a third by the expression * ' beat the wild
war drums made of serpent's skin." Each one of the dis-
tinctions has further distinctions within it. All these dis-
tinctions, or at least many of them, are in sub-consciousness
during the first stage in the act of learning.
In the first phase of the mind's method in learning, it
apprehends the entire object practically as an undifferenti-
ated or fused unity. The distinctions are merely felt, they
are not clearly comprehended. Out of this stage of dim
knowledge the mind passes naturally into the second, that
of clear distinction. The tendency in the stage of distinct
tion is to be quite complete in the analysis. Each element
28 The ProbIvEm of Method. |
is isolated in thought, becoming a distinct thing to the self.
Isolation, as a finality, however, is distasteful to the mind.
The ego, therefore, by its own impulse, passes into the
third stage, that of organization. This third stage in
which the self becomes aware of the object as an organized
or mediated unity is changed by repetition into enlightened
feeling.
The mind's process in learning may be illustrated further
with the scalene triangle as an object. It will be advan-
tageous to indicate, before considering the act of learning
itself, the characteristics of the object.
Among its distinctions these are found ; its surface ; its
three sides ; its inequality of its sides ; its inequality of
angles ; its having no right angle, no angle larger than a
right angle, two angles smaller than a right angle, its pos-
sessing the attribute of differing from an isosceles triangle,
&c. All these distinctions, and the others that are present,
are to the learner unknown. In rendering this object sub-
jective, the first phase of the mind's process is that in which
it apprehends it indistinctly, as a whole. In this stage its
differentiations are but dimly felt, the learner having merely
a presentiment of them.
Through dwelling upon the object, however, the mind
gradually becomes aware of all the various distinctions, and
in obedience to its analytic tendency these distinctions are
strictly isolated. Therefore division or negation becomes too
prominent. By continuing to examine the object the mind
is led to seek unity. Through the acts of discovering and
isolating the predominant attribute and relating the other
characteristics to this central one, the mind organizes the
object. Thus the object becomes truly a unity to the self.
Continued attention to it in this aspect, results in habit.
A helpful reference to enlightened feeling may be found on p. 249 of Introduc-
tion to the Study of Philosophy, by W. T. Harris.
The PROBI.KM OF Method. 29
n becoming habit the activity is transformed into feeling,
nd since clear analysis has preceded it, the feeling is en-
ightened.
This four-fold process of the mind may be still further
llustrated by an object from literature :
THE BUGI.E SONG.
1. The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story ;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow ! set the wild echoes flying !
Blow, bugle ! answer, echoes ! dying, dying, dying.
2. O hark ! O hear, how thin and clear.
And thinner, clearer, farther going !
O sweet and far, from cliff and scar.
The horns of Elf-land faintly blowing !
Blow ! let us hear the purple glens replying.
Blow, bugle ! answer, echoes ! dying, dying, dying.
3. O love, they die in yon rich sk}' ;
They faint on hill, or field, or river ;
Our echoes roll from soul to vSoul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow ! set the wild echoes flying !
And answer, echoes, answer ! dying, dying, dying.
— From " The Pfuicess,'^ Tennyson.
This object may be assumed to exist as a unity manifest-
ng itself in a great variety of distinctions. At first, how-
;ver, these distinctions are concealed from the learner,
rhe poem is apprehended as a whole ; its central unity and
ill the variety of distinctions are grasped dimly; they are
nerely felt, that is, the mind possesses a presentiment of
heir existence.
Before noticing the mind's fundamental process as re-
pealed in the act of studying The Bugle Song, a partial
ndication of the distinctions involved in it may be given :
rhere is, first, the distinction into exprCvSsion and content,
rhe expression is distinguished into language and image.
30 The Problem of Method.
The content may be separated into central thought and pur-
pose. The language, as a form of literature, has in it many
distinctions. Leaving them for later consideration, some
of the distinctions under the image may be noted :
1 . There is first the physical background. One element
of this is expressed by — * 'The splendor falls on castle walls' ' ;
others by "Snowy summits old in story" ; "The long light
shakes across the lakes"; "The wild cataract leaps in
glory"; "the purple glens"; "on hill, or field, or river";
"yon rich sky". All these constitute a physical back-
ground for the physical echo.
2. A second element is, therefore, the physical echo.
This is an element in the complex image of the bugler, bugle,
the act of blowing, and the fljang of "the wild echoes."
Within these distinctions subordinate characteristics are
found : The echoes become "thin and clear"; they are
"sweet and far", resembling the "horns of Klf-land", &c.
All these, however, constituting the physical echo, seem
to be employed as a symbol of some spiritual activity; of
some human deed. This introduces the central thought.
3. The conception of the central thought involves the
distinction between the good deed and the evil deed. The
beauty of the external background, and of the physical echo
are in harmony, not with the evil deed, but with the good
deed; hence this distinction of harmony is involved. There
are reasons for holding that evil deeds can not "grow for-
ever and forever." However this may be, the author, as
indicated by the beauty of the physical setting he has em-
ployed, seems to have in mind the good deeds only. In this
spiritual activity are involved three distinctions*: —
a. It affects person after person.
b. It becomes more prominent, important, and sub-
stantial, as it passes from consciousness to consciousness.
Herein is involved a further distinction, namely, the differ-
The ProbIvEm of Method. 31
ence of the spiritual echo and the phj^sical echo, as to growth
and endurance. The purpose of the writer also appears as
a distinction — the central one.
c. It returned to the producer.
From the mind of the learner, however, all these distinc-
tions are concealed. In the study of the poem he reads it
through and thus becomes aware of it indistinctly as a whole.
His apprehension of its central meaning and purpose, and of
all the other distinctions, is dim. They are present to the
mind in presentiment only. This first phase is natural,
however.
Out of this presentiment the mind passes into that phase
in which it becomes distinctly aware of all the attributes in
the object. The attributes of distinction, however, are to
be limited to the object as literature.
Rising out of this phase of differentiation, the mind passes
into the stage of organized unifying. The poem has now
become a true unity to the learner.
Through repetition of the act of thinking the poem as an
organized unity, the activity becomes a habit. This is a
return to feeling, but it is now enlightened feeling. The
poem has finally become the learner's own, and he is, in a
certain respect, the poem. It is to be noted that this fourth
phase is merely the third in a more permanent form.
It is not strange that the mind exhibits these three stages
in the mastery of any truth, since the ego is itself essen-
tially a mode of activity characterized by these three ele-
ments. It exists first as undifferentiated; as a mere poten-
tiality for activity. Acting, it differentiates itself from
itself, and exists as object. The mind is always its own
object. This is the second phase of its existence. As ob-
ject it is distinct from itself as subject. Continued exam-
ination of itself as object, however, shows that this object
is the subject. The return has now been made to unity.
32 The Probi^em of Method.
Having previousl}^ illustrated the three stages of mental
action (regarding the fourth phase as merely the repetition
or retention of the third) it is now of importance to notice :
1. That there is a partial identity between the first phase
in learning an object, namely, apprehending it indistinctly,
and the act of being engrossed with the material and consider-
ing the material, i. e. , space-occupying objects to be the all
in all. Being engrossed with the material is not, however,
fully identical with the first phase of the mind's movement,
because this first phase includes also failure to distinguish
the varying attributes in the object. This, however, is to be
noticed : Each object is material and spirit, or meaning.
The human being is material and spirit ; the transom above
the door is material and spirit, or meaning. The driver
wheel on an engine is material and spirit, or meaning. It
therefore follows that to be engrossed with the material,
considering it to be the all in all, is, to a degree, identical
with grasping a thing dimly.
2. That the concentration of the attention on the spirit-
ual element as the all in all, is to a certain extent, identical
with the second stage in the mind's fundamental movement.
To thus consider spirit is to isolate it. The true position is
reached when neither the material nor the spiritual is re-
garded as the total. The truth is found in the unity of
both. To exalt the physical is to dwell in the first phase of
thought. To isolate and exalt the spiritual is to dwell in
the second phase; in the phase of isolation, of negation.
The reason that this is termed isolation while the first is
not, is that it requires distinction or analysis, to discover
the spiritual.
3. That the third stage is to a degree, identical with the
process of discovering the deeper unity which is seen to be
the source or origin of both the physical and the spiritual.
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 33
Both experience and history show that these three phases
are true, as to the child and as to the race.
a. In religion, for example, when a people is substan-
tially in the first phase of thought, it finds its Gods in ex-
ternal nature. When in the second phase it finds its Gods
in alienation from nature. Thus while the hills smoked
and trembled in the presence of the Jehovah of the Jews,
He does not appear as in unity with the physical universe ;
while ruling over it He is foreign to it. It does not reveal
Him.
The third stage in the growth of religious thought discov-
ers as its God a fundamental unity ; an activity which is
revealed both in everything spiritual and in everything
physical.
b. In philosophy, the same is found to be true. In the
first phase of thought the first principle of the universe was
found to be chaos, moisture, fire, air, and the like. In the
second phase the spiritual was more prominent. Its won-
derful properties were exalted and regarded as the criterion.
Thus the sophists found the individual spirit of man to be
the measure of all things. When, however, philosophy
reached the third stage of thought, Socrates discovered that
the characteristic which makes man the measure of all things
is not his particularity. It is the divine element in him,
in all other human beings, and in the Absolute Spirit. In
this third stage of philosophy unity became prominent,
because the. first principal was regarded as the source of
everything spiritual and physical, and as revealed in them.
G. In history this vSame truth is shown. In the first
phase of thought the events are regarded as the history.
This is abstract or partial. In the second phase a deeper view
is gained. The feelings, purposes and thoughts of the people
underlying these outside acts are regarded as history. This
view is also abstract or partial. The spiritual is no more
34 Thk Problem of Method.
truly the man than are his objectifications. The property
that one has acquired is will objectified. Any work of
art, is in a sense the artist, An}^ historical or scien-
tific work given to the world is the producer. Therefore
the concrete, i. e., the complete view in history, is not
reached until one enters upon the third stage of thought.
In this stage those concrete productions known as the insti-
tutions, viewed as produced by man's spiritual growth
toward freedom and as reacting upon man are the history.
Thus it is with everything. For example, the physical
constituents and form of the door key are not the key.
The view that they are is abstract, and hence incomplete.
The thought of the door key is not the door key. This
view is also abstract and incomplete. The thought of the
door key revealed in a particular way, that is, its two
sides taken as a concrete unity, constitutes the door key.
This same process which has manifested itself in the growth
of religion, philosophy, and history, reveals itself in the
growth of the conception of Method. It is natural that the
method in any subject should be found in this fundamental
movement of mind, which is just the mind's method. This
method of consciousness is not, however, the special method
in any particular subject. The distinctive method in any
branch of study is analogous to the third stage of knowing.
The reason for this is that special method is a relation. For
example, method in geography is not this fundamental
movement of mind ; neither is it any external mode of ac-
tivity. It is, however, the fundamental movement of con-
sciousness specialized as it would necessarily be, in the
mind's act of knowing a geographical fact.
In its general aspect method in geography is the funda-
mental movement of mind. Defined more accurately, it is
this fundamental movement modified by the distinctive kind
of subject-matter belonging to geography. In summariz-
The Problem of Method. 35
ing, it may be said that method is at first conceived as some-
thing external — as a mode of physical action ; as a series of
actions consisting of directions, questions, illustrations, ex-
planations, etc., since such actions bear a certain relation
to the method itself, and are more easily noticed than the
underlying method. As above noted, the universal ten-
dency in the infancy of thought, is to be engrossed with the
external aspect of a thing, and to consider this external aspect
as the thing itself. This is, however, an abstract or incom-
plete view. The tendency to note the external aspect when
in the lower stages of development, is no more a universal
mark, however, than is the tendency to note the internal or
spiritual aspect in the second stage, and to consider it as an
isolated thing, and as the whole. To center attention on the
spiritual aspect in its generality, viewing it as if it were the
total object, is, as above noted, also abstract. This incom-
plete mode of regarding the spiritual is illustrated by such
expressions as : "The method in arithmetic is abstraction
and generalization;" "The method in studying a botanical
object is inductive." The more concrete activity of mind
is the tendency to seek a fundamental or underlying unity in
the two incomplete aspects discovered in the first two stages
of development, each in its turn being considered as com-
plete; as the whole.
These three tendencies (including under the third habit,
or enlightened feeling, made instinctive) marking the three
stages of development in the race and in the individual are,
as above indicated, mere exhibitions of the essence of con-
sciousness. The very nature of consciousness is :
a. To exist as mere energy, as potential, as immedi-
ate. (Subject.)
b. To exist as object, as alienation, as other than the
knowing subject. (Object.) This arises in the stage of
36 The Problem of Method.
distinction or clear analysis, in which each analyzed element
is conceived as if it were independent,
c. To exist as Subject-Object.
The activity which at first was conceived as object, as
alien, is now seen to be the knower as well as the known.
True unity now appears. This is the stage of differentiated
unity. The three stages of conceiving as external, as inter-
nal, and as the unity of the external and internal, are an
exhibition of what has been termed the fundamental process
of mind. This process limited to knowledge is,
a. Apprehending the object indistinctly.
b. Analyzing it into its elements and emphasizing each
element as if it were unrelated.
c. Organizing, i. e. , discovering the unity of these
elements.
Method is found in the relation of the facts of the subject
to the fundamental process of knowing.
A fact in a subject is one element of the subject with a
certain attribute of it emphasized according to the mind's
interest. More definitely, then, method is the fundamen-
tal movement of mind in the examination of an object with
reference to a given attribute that has been exalted and em-
phasized by the mind's interest. The method of a subject,
then, is always one and the same. Method as a process
does not change. Our conception of what method is,
changes. In the first stage of thought method is viewed as
a set of external acts. In the second stage of thought the
mind looks beneath the series of external acts and discovers
the implied series of psychological activities. These are
viewed as the method. Both of these views are abstract,
and, therefore, incomplete.
In the third stage of thought —
a. The mind thinks beneath each psj^chological activ-
it}^, whether it be sense-perception, memory, imagination.
Thk Problem of Method. 37
judgment, or any other, and discovers that each is merely a
manifestation of the mind' s fundamental movement — grasp-
ing the object dimly, analyzing definitely and re-unifying.
b. It then examines the facts of the subject, noting as
the essential thing the human interCvSt or purpose that gives
organization to the facts of the subject by furnishing the
principle that makes the subject a distinct branch of study.
Herein is discovered the organizing idea of the subject.
c. The mind then discovers that the process of the mind
in learning the subject, i. e., the special method of the sub-
ject, is just the fundamental movement of mind specialized
by the peculiar subject-matter of this branch of study.
Let arithmetic be considered for example :
According to the first view the method in arithmetic is a
set of external acts ; as, placing a number on the board by
using a series of dots showing the number of fours in the
dots, finding the relations within each number, constructing
in imagination concrete examples involving that number,
expressing the results in a definite form on the black-board,
expressing the results orally, &c.
According to the second view the method in arithmetic
is some general psychological activity, as analysis, synthe-
sis, deduction, abstraction, generalization, &c.
According to the third view the method in arithmetic is
the fundamental movement of mind concerned with the fol-
lowing kind of an object : A number or activity viewed as
measurer or means, and a number or activity viewed as
measured thing or end ; that is, the method in arithmetic
is the fundamental movement of mind concerned with ratio.
This would be elaborated more fully under Special Method
in Arithmetic.
The average educational thought holds in general to the
first conception of method. To a slight extent the second
conception prevails. Here the attempt is to be made to ex-
38 The Probi^km of Method.
plain the conception of method which belongs to the third
stage of thought.
To do this it is necessary to set forth (1) the four things
that lead up to method as a distinctive thing — central prin-
ciple ; scope ; divisions, sub-divisions, and facts ; relative
importance. (2) Method as a distinctive act. (3) The
two things resulting from method — mental effects and de-
vices.
In beginning to treat more fully the different views of
method, certain expressions indicating the prevailing idea
as to what method is, culled from various sources, popular,
educational, and pedagogical are to be presented. These w^ill
be examined in order to determine :
1. Which indicate the first stage, namely, the conception
that Method is a series of external acts.
2. Which indicate the second stage — namely, the con-
ception that Method is a certain psychological activity in
general, as sense-perception or imagination or induction —
a mere psychological activity unspecialized by a distinctive
subject-matter.
3. Which, if anj^ hint or indicate definitely the third
conception as to the nature of Method.
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 39
CHAPTER V.
VARIOUS USES OF THE TERM METHOD.
The following wide range of examples in the employment
of the term method is given in order to afford the oppor-
tunity to give additional clearness to the idea of method by
first, determining the exact nature of the activity shown in
each example, and then testing the use of the term by the
idea of method developed in the previous chapters.
GENERAL MEANINGS.
(From Dictionary.)
1. Eiteral meta, after ; odos, a way.
2. An orderly procedure or process ; regular manner of
doing anything ; hence, manner, way, mode ; as, a method
of teaching languages ; a method of improving the mind.
— \_Addison.
3. Orderly arrangement, elucidation, development, or
classification ; systematic arrangement peculiar to an indi-
vidual.
Though this be madness, yet there's method in it.
— \Shak.
4. All method is rational progress, a progress toward an
end. — \Sir W. Hamilton.
5. A mode or system of classifying natural objects ac-
cording to certain common characteristics ; as, the method of
Theophrastus ; the method of Ray ; the I^innaean method.
a. Synonyms. Order ; system ; rule ; regularity ; way;
manner; mode ; course ; process ; means. Method, Mode,
40 The Problem of Method.
Manner. Method implies arrangement ; mode, mere action
or existence. Method is a way of reaching a given end by
a series of acts which tend to secure it ; 77iode relates to a
single action, or to the form which a series of acts, viewed
as a whole, exhibits. Manfier is literally the handling of a
thing, and has a wider sense, embracing both method and
mode. An instructor may adopt a good method of teaching
to write ; the scholar may acquire a bad mode of holding
his pen ; the 7nanner in which he is corrected will greatly
affect his success or failure.
POPUI.AR MEANINGS.
- 1. When Controller Eckels wrote that the failure of the
National Bank of Illinois was " due to injudicious, reckless
and imprudent methods " , he was either not fully informed
as to the facts, or he put the case much too mildly. — \The
Indianapolis J our7ial, Dec. 26, 1896.
2. They never stop to think, if they know, how the in-
troduction of the French revolutionary methods would work
in this or any other country. — \Terre Haute Express, Dec.
26, 1896.
3. The report of the Inter-State Commerce Committee,
published last week, brings out sharply some of the methods
by which the railroads are evading the Inter-State Com-
merce lyaw. It deals especially with the traffic associations
by which railroads now combine to keep rates above the
competitive level. The agreement of these associations,
says the Commission, quoting Judge Cooley, are drawn with
• ' marvelous ' ' ingenuity to evade the law against pooling.
In those recently entered into, the words " so far as legally
can be done ' ' follow provisions for maintaining rates and
dividing traffic which would not otherwise be distinguished
from the pooling arrangements declared illegal. — \The Out-
look, Dec. 26, 1896, p. 1171.
I
The Problem of Method. 41
4. We realized that he had struck a blow in the world
which will resound through its histor3^ In him we find
not the methods of the machine politician or of the crafty
diplomatist, but the incorruptible citizen and patriotic states-
man. — [Speech of Mr. Lewis, Atlanta, Georgia.
5. A survey and consideration of the prCvSent methods
and results of our foreign mission work, w^hen made from
any high standpoint, cannot fail to produce in most observ-
ers a feeling of impatience and dissatisfaction. Not only
the hostile censor and the chronic doubter, but even the
friendly critic and the hearty believer in the paramount
duty of the Christian Church to send missions into all the
world, finds in such survey and consideration much to con-
demn, or at least to seriously question. The attitude of the
missionary towards the religion w^iich he seeks to displace,
the relation of the missionary abroad to the Board at home,
the very existence of a home board in a true missionary
economy, the relation of the foreign missionary to the native
Christianity, the very right and expediency of the retention
of permanent settled foreigners in a field where the nucleus
of a native church has been formed — these and other con-
siderations of equal gravity and importance present them-
selves for the consideration of the Church. Radical reforms
are suggested in some directions, but even among those who
would agree in ultimate ideals there is wide difference of
opinion as to the expedient policy for the immediate future.
That radical changes are needed admits of no doubt to
many. While the great mass of the conservatives see no
occasion for serious change, how can they understand why
such questions should be raised ?
There is, however, one evil in our foreign missionary
work which finds almost unanimous recognition ; for there
42 The Probi^em op Method.
are but few who would not agree with the recent declara-
tion of a foreign missionary that ' ' denominationalism is a
luxury that should not be encouraged in the foreign field."
While this sentiment is quite general, the condition which
confronts us is a number of denominational boards, each
working on separate and independent lines which run out
into the furthest missionary field. What is more, this con-
dition has in it evident potency of long life, which belongs
to old and strong organizations, backed by a practical de-
nominationalism and supported by a jealous fear which at
present is more strong than an ideal sentiment.
In view of this condition, while we would neither ignore
the more radical reforms hinted at above, nor lose sight of
ultimate ideals, our purpose is to suggest an advance in
missionary methods, which, not disturbing the existence of
the denominational boards, nor interfering with the work
in the fields, offers a forward step both immediate and prac-
tical. The idea which we w^ould present is that of a gen-
eral Missionary Board or Commission, which in some lim-
ited way, should unite and represent the .several isolated
denominational boards. Rather than to attempt to discuss
the form of such a commission and meet the obvious objec-
tions which might be offered in the abstract, we would pre-
fer to commend the idea by suggesting some of the direc-
tions in which such a commission would be of service suffi-
cient to justify its creation. These directions of service are
capable of a threefold division as affecting (1) the work of
the several boards which might co-operate in it ; (2) the
work and workers in the foreign field ; (3) the Church at
home.
With regard to the separate boards, the Commission could
be of general economic service by making easy a compari-
son of methods and expenses which would enable different
boards to benefit by the experience of others, and so reduce
The ProbIvEm of Method. 43
expenses and improve methods. — [77?^ Outlook, Dec. 20,
1896. A Forzvard Step in Missions.
6. Before Moses, sacrifice was well nigh universal. Many
persons have the impression that Moses not only commanded
sacrifice, but that it originated with him. No ! sacrifice
was the universal method of worship throughout the world.
Its origin is pagan, not Jewish. It antedates Judaism.
* * ^ Pagans offered their sacrifices everywhere, on
every high hill and under every green tree. But this Lev-
itical code said Israel shall not do so. That is based on the
idea that sacrifice is necessary, that one cannot have favor
with God unless he offers sacrifice, and that idea was by
every method discouraged and denied. — [Gospel Doctrine of
Sacrifice. Outlook, Dec. 26, 1896.
7. There is a method in man's wickedness. It grows up
by degrees. — [A King and No King, Act V, Scene ^.
Beaumont and Fletcher.
8. Who could have conjectured in advance anything of
that widespread system of Totemism which Frazer has pre-
sented with such detail, the importance of which we are
only beginning to recognize, and the significance of which
we are scarcely beginning to comprehend ? Indeed, it is
doubtful if many of these early methods of thought and ac-
tion will ever be really understood, for the reason that these
customs so soon become merely traditional, and those who
practice them may no longer attach a definite significance
to them. In looking at methods of life that express feelings
and notions so different from our own, we feel, so far as any
comprehension is involved, almost as helpless as we do in
watching the economy of an ant-hill. In the ant-hill there
is a civilization very like our own, and yet, so far as the
inner relations which it expresses are concerned, it is utterly
44 The Probi^em of Method.
foreign to ns and unimaginable by us. — \The Gospel of St.
Paul, by Charles Carrol Everett, p. 9.
9. However these two methods may, at the first glance,
seem to resemble each other, there is a really great differ-
•ence between them. The animal is identified with the
worshipper in the Jewish scapegoat, for instance, where the
sins of the people were laid upon his head. Among the
Egyptians, the victim was sometimes marked with a seal
bearing the image of a man bound and w^ith a sword at his
throat. This was to show that the victim represented the
human sacrifice which milder manners had given up. — \The
Gospel of Paul, hy Charles Carroll Everett, p. 25.
10. It is hardl}^ to be questioned that the sacrifice and
the use of blood as a means of purification came to be re-
garded, to some extent, in the same formal and traditional
manner. At least there must have been a tendency to the
simple perfunctory use of such methods of winning the
divine favor. Those by whom the gods were conceived in
too spiritual a fashion to admit of the earlier and grosser
notions of sacrifice might still feel obliged to peform them
according to the customary routine of worship. — \_The Gos-
pel of Paul, by Charles Carroll Everett, p. 35.
11. As to the method b}^ which the death of Christ took
the place of the punishment which the sinner had deserved,
Pfleiderer's statements lack the clearness which marks the
greater part of his discussion. — \_The Gospel of Paul, by
Charles Carroll Everett, p. 127.
12. I thus fail to find any method by which the resurrec-
tion of Christ may be made to appear to have any vital rela-
tion to his atoning work, as this is commonly understood. —
{The Gospel of Paul, by Charles Carroll Everett, p. 209.
13. He was with the Terre Haute Evening News in a
The Probi^em of Method. 45
responsible capacity and his brilliant and aggressive 7neth-
ods won for that newspaper a large circulation. — \Terre
Haute Express, Ja?i. 7, iSgy.
14. The Commission, however, recognized the necessity
of other methods of securing such deliberation and such pub-
lic notice, by providing that no important ordinance can be
acted upon until several days after publication in the ''City
Record." ^ -^ -^^^ There are two methods either one of
which would make such knowledge possible. One would
be to delegate the legislative powers to a small body of nine,
twelve, or fifteen men, to be elected by the whole city on
one ticket. The other w^ould be to divide the city into a
hundred voting districts, and provide that each district
should elect one, and only one, representative. — \Outlook,
Editorial, Jan. 2, i8gy.
15. Perfect methods make our work perfect. — \^Adver-
tisemejzt vf a laundry.
16. In order to accomplish this result the melter and
refiner must have the pure gold to begin with. He must
take all the gold out of the brick, but in such a way as to
leave no silver or other metal connected with it. His
method is an odd one. He takes the gold brick and melts it
with a lot of silver. He does this because the acid which
is to take the silver out of the gold will not work well un-
less there is plenty of the silver in the mixture. He knows
just how much silver is necessary for the right combina-
tion, and he adds this amount to the gold brick. The com-
bined metals are next thrown into a vessel containing nitric
acid. This acid has a peculiar affinity for silver and for the
baser metals. It has no effect upon gold, but it sucks all
of the other metals out of the mixture and combines with
them, turning them into a liquid which looks not unlike
water. The pure gold drops to the bottom of the vessel,
46 The Problem of Method.
while the silver and other metals are left in the solution.
The liquor is now drawn off, and the melter and refiner has
a lot of pure gold, out of wdiich he makes another brick or
bar. — [Method in Lajigicage VII — Devices, p. ^^.
17. Lieutenant Governor Nye ruled him out of order
and denied an appeal to the Senate, sa3ang the method pro-
vided for organization could not be departed from. — \Te7Te
Haute Gazette, Ja7i. 8, iS^y.
18. There should be some method of enrollment and a
fee demanded as a condition precedent to the right to prac-
tice before the people's legislative jury. — [Gov. Ping re e' s
Message to the Michigaii Legislature.
19. The same regulation should be provided for city and
town superintendents, as one year is not time enough for
the putting to a test any superintendent's metJiods. — [Re-
port of Indiana Legislative Committee on School Law.
20. Arrange to keep such paved streets clean by the la-
test improved method. — [Teri-e Haute Gazette, /a7t. g, i8gy.
21. But if we proceed in our inquiries as we lately did,
by the method of mutual admissions, we shall combine in
our own persons the functions of jury and advocate. — [Bk.
I, Sec. J ^8, Plato' s Republic.
22. It is not promised to bring prosperity to those who
do business according to reckless and dishonest methods. —
[ Crawfordsville Journal.
23. The presidential electors elected last November held
an informal meeting at the Denison House last evening to
look into the law and learn what should be the method of
procedure in casting the vote of Indiana for McKinley and
Hobart. They did not talk of who should be elected mes-
senger, and that question will be decided either by ballot or
by lot at the meeting to-day. They will meet, according to
I
Thk Problem of Method. 47
law, in the hall of the House at 10 o'clock this morning,
and organize by electing a chairman and secretary. They
will then ballot for president and vice-president and will
sign a certificate of how the vote was cast in triplicate, one
copy being filed in the Federal Court, another being trans-
mitted by mail to the president of the Senate of the United
States and the other being sent to the same officer by special
messenger, under seal. Four or five of the delegates are
asking to be made messenger, and none of them would re-
fuse it. — \Jndia71apolis Journal.
24. When I assumed the position as chief of the Depart-
ment of Geology and Natural Resources, I started out with
the expressed determination of making that department
what its originators, in my opinion, intended it should be —
a bureau of information, where any person can at anj^ time
procure a knowledge of the natural resources of our State.
I did away with the unscientific method of county surveys,
since the civil boundaries of a county have nothing to do
with the boundaries or limits of a natural resource, and
adopted the plan of taking up each of the great resources
in detail, and preparing a monograph or special report
thereon, accompanied by maps, cuts, engravings and tables
of chemical and physical tests. — {Report of State Geologist
to India7ia Legislature^ Jci^fi-y iSgy.
25. Monopoly's Method. It appears that the Pennsyl-
vania railroad tried to pack the meeting of citizens which
was held last night to protest against the gift of Delaware
street made by the Board of Public Works to this corpora-
tion. Large numbers of railroad employes w^ere present
for the purpose of destroying the object of the meeting,
and they might have succeeded if they had been as ably led
as the citizens were. — {Indianapolis News, Editorial, Jari. 12,
1897.
48 Thk Problem of Mkthod.
26. One irritating circumstance in connection with the
last treaty grows out of the peculiar method adopted by the
State Department to give the text to the public. Two ex-
tra copies were made, one of which was sent to the Senate
and the other given to a Washington correspondent of a
London newspaper. It was supposed at the department
that the press association would be able to get a copy at the
Senate, but the rules of that body prohibited this being
given out at once. The press associations, therefore, had
to order the treaty cabled back from London, w^iereat com-
plaint is made of discrimination against American newspa-
pers, and much is being made of it in Congress and out.
Mr. Olney is accused of being an Anglomaniac and of
catering more to the English people than to his American
constituency both in the matter arid spirit of the treaty it-
self and in the methods of its distribution for publication. —
[India7iapolis Jozir7ial, Ja7i. 7^, iS^y.
27. It also amends the election law by putting the Re-
publican ticket in the first column and making a few minor
changes in the methods of counting, chief of which is that
it gives to any party nominating a ticket the privilege of
having two watchers at the polls. — \_Indianapolis Journal,
Jan. IS, i8p7.
28. Moreover its work in unmasking imposters and ex-
posing the methods of fraudulent charity-mongers has been
of great benefit to the community. — \_Report oj Society Jor
Orga7iized Charity, J a7i,, i8py,
29. "A few years ago," said a local newspaper man last
night, " I saw as much of Mr. McCullagh as any man could.
I knew his 77tethods. He gave his time to his paper. In the
old building where all were crowded together there was but
one chair that any one could sit in, and that was occupied
by the editor. The others were heaped with books, so that
Thk Problkm of Method. 49
it was impossible for him to ask any one to be seated. He
read the papers, and as he read wrote the crisp editorial
paragraphs which have long been a feature of the Globe-
Democrat. He never permitted himself to be bored. If he
wanted an article he knew it, and would send the writer a
check for it. If he did not, he would waste no words about
it. It was said that his moods had something to do with
his decisions. — \_India71apolis Journal.
30. It must be gratifying to all good citizens to note the
energetic methods that obtain with the management of the
local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association.
The Sunday afternoon meetings of the association are at-
tended by more men than any other service in the city, and
that they are the sources of much profit as well as of great
pleasure there is no doubt. Their success is perhaps due in
large measure to the restlessness of the General Secretary.
He is a firm believer in the efficacy of advertising — a species
of orthodoxy that some business men have yet fully to
grasp. When he starts out " to work up a meeting," as he
phrases it, he does not rest until he has accomplished his
purpose. On Saturday nights the citizens of Terre Haute
are greeted by announcements in chalk written on the side-
walks and at other conspicuous places telling them that ' ' to-
morrow afternoon Mr. So-and-So will speak at the Young
Men's Christian Association rooms." As a rule, also, the
same announcement is made in the various churches on the
next morning and the fact is given publicity in as many
ways as possible. — \Saturday Evening Mail, Jan. 16, iS^y,
31. It is a simple and antidotal volume of advice and
suggestion about the manners, customs, habits and moral
qualties and methods of work which a priest ought to culti-
vate. — \_The Outlook, Jan. 16, 18 gy. The Books oj the
Week.
50 The Probi.em of Method.
32. The Board of Superintendents, acting as a central
body for the whole school system of the city, has attended
to all appointments and promotions ; the superintendent
states it to be the present method of administration. — \The
Outlook^ Jan. i6, 1^97- The Teaching Profession.
33. He did it more cleverly than the inventor and his
efforts in the performance were an improvement upon Hou-
din's methods. Heller was the first magician to introduce a
lady confederate and assistant in the magical entertainment.
He likewise discarded the use of all visible apparatus, cur-
tains and tapestries. Wyman is perhaps the first magician
the present middle age can recollect of its childhood. His
methods were clumsy in contrast to those of latter day ma-
gicians, but his wonders seemed marvels and his crowning
feat of extracting real eggs and a live chicken from an ap-
parently empty bag was a feat beyond which nothing ap-
peared more startling. He combined ventriloquism with his
entertainment and a large source of his fame rested upon
his powers in this species of entertainment. — \Indianapolis
Journal^ Jan. ly. i8gy. Magic and Magicians.
34. The doctors had failed in the attempt to secure pic-
tures of the thoughts in their minds, and only attained their
purpose by the indirect method of having them impressed
first on the brains of others. Before the subjects were
placed under the hypnotic spell each was instructed to think
of nothing but his own hand. Bach imagined, then, that
the laboratory was full of hands and, judging by the dis-
tinct impressions received of a photographic plate, the hands
were really there. — \India7iapolis Jotirnal, Jan. ly, i8gy.
Thought Photography .
35. The district method of electing county commission-
ers works very unjustly in this county. Under the present
system Indianapolis, which with its suburbs has nine-tenths
The ProbIvEm of Method. 51
of the population of the county and pa3's eight- tenths of the
taxes, has onlj^^one of three commissioners. The result is
that it has little or no voice in the action of the board, be-
ing always voted 'down in matters of local interest by the
country members. If the district method of electing com-
missioners is to continue in general, an exception should be
made of counties containing cities of a certain population. —
\Editorial in Indianapolis J ouriial, Jan, 20, 18 py,
36. The Associated Press report of the scene with
Speaker Reed sa3^s that the committee of members pointed
out the necessity of the buildings mentioned, and said that
it was evident that the majority of the House desired their
consideration. Speaker Reed asked them if they were
aware that the government was running behind in the mat-
ter of revenue at the rate of $58,000,000 a year. It was a
question of the ability of the government to meet and pay
its obligations. The committee replied that the bills did
not appropriate a dollar, but only fixed the maximum of
cost of the buildings, the appropriations being left in the
hands of future Congresses. Mr. Reed said that he did not
approve of this method of mortgaging the revenues of the
government, to which the committee replied that they could
not mortgage what did not exist and thought that the sub-
ject of making appropriations could be safely left to future
Congresses. The committee came away feeling that it was
not a cheerful outlook.
37. An operator comes forward, and under his guidance
we look into the- methods of attending to a most important
branch of the fire service — that of receiving and recording
an alarm of fire from a street box, and transmitting the
same to the engine companies nearest to the fire, in the
shortest possible time. ^ ^l-^ * After this when we see a
fire company responding to the call of duty, we wnll better
52 Thk ProbIvKm of Mkthod.
appreciate the methods that have been used to send them on
their noble errand. — \St. Nicholas^ Feb. , i8^y.
38. Au Gau gazed scornfully upon the scene, as these
demonlike figures danced in and out of the smoke and fire.
* ' Look at those red-headed demons ! They seem to be fire-
proof, " he remarked to his uncle. After pondering a while,
he continued : "I have been told that all this noise, fire
and smoke is to drive away evil spirits ; but it seems to
bring them, like flies around a sugar bowl." The seeming
failure of this noisy method of combatting the bad spirits set
his young mind to thinking. — \St. Nicholas, Feb., iSpy.
39. Mr. Carlisle is an able man, and, as politicians go,
a good deal of a statesman, but he has not developed any
originality or ability as a financier nor shown any familiarity
with financial methods. Indianapolis Journal, Jan. jo, iSp/,
40. Washington, Jan. 30. — Communications from the
church bodies in various parts of the country are being
received by members of the House committee on mili-
tary affairs regarding the action of the secretary of war in
granting permission for the erection of a Catholic cathedral
building on the government grounds at West Point. The
matter seems to have brewed a commotion nearly equal to
that which has raged over school appropriations if the let-
ters coming in are a sign. Several communications from
bishops, ministers of organizations, as well as from laymen,
have been received. Three other religious bodies have ap-
plied for information as to whether they will also be allowed
to place church buildings on the West Point grounds. It
is possible that the matter may be brought before Congress
by a resolution of inquiry or some other method. — [Indian-
apolis Journal, Jan. ji, I Spy.
41. The antiquity of the legal methods is curiously illus-
trated by the recent discovery of the oldest will extant.
The ProbIvEm of Method. 53
This unique document was unearthed by Professor Petrie at
Kahum, Egypt, and is at least four thousand years old. In
its phraseology the will is singularly modern in form, so
much so that it might be admitted to probate to-da}^ — [In-
dianapolis Journal, Jan. ji, i8gy.
42. The Administrative Board of Libraries, I^aboratories
and Museums at meetings held on November 28, 1896, and
January 23, 1897, took the following action :
In the place of Special Regulation No. 3 governing De-
partmental Libraries, the following was substituted :
All officers, of instruction may, with the approval of the
appropriate departmental adviser withdraw books from the
library of their own department and retain them for a lim-
ited period to be agreed upon by the borrower and the de-
partmental adviser.
In the carrying out of this rule, the following methods
shall be employed :
1. The records of withdrawal of books are to be kept in
each departmental library in an instructor's loan book pro-
vided for that purpose, and the drawer shall record his
name, etc., title of the book, accession number, and the date
of the withdrawal.
2. The departmental advisor in connection with the head
of the department shall determine the conditions under
which books may be withdrawn from a departmental library,
and inform the general library of these conditions,
3. The departmental adviser may through the general
library call in the book at anytime. — \JJniversity Record^
Chicago, Jan. 2g, iSyp.
43. No one has blamed Mr. Rohl-Smith for accepting a
commission which was offered him by those having legal
power to make the offer. Those whom the society has
blamed are the officials who selected a work of art for other
54 The Problem of Method.
than artistic reasons. It is not necessary to speculate as to
the motive of those who have misled him into taking such
a stand. They have succeeded, however, in furnishing an-
other example as to methods which, in this instance, the
society has deplored, and have done everthing possible to
preclude even helpful criticism until it is too late to be of
any use. — \Statement of National Sculpture Society^ N. V.,
Jan. ji, 18g6. From Indianapolis Joiwnal, Feb. z, i8^y.
44. The junketing was harmless, but it helped to over-
shadow the business side of the visit and excited rather an
undue amount of censorious comment. In spite of this fea-
ture, however, the visitation method continued because it
seemed to be the only available means of getting the desired
information. The bill paSvSed by the House, if it becomes a
law, will end the junketing business. It provides that after
an election of members of the Legislature, and at least forty-
five days before the session opens, the Governor shall ap-
point a commission consisting of one senator and two repre-
sentatives-elect, who shall visit and inspect all the state in-
stitutions and report to the Legislature regarding their con-
dition and needs. The commission is allowed thirty days
in which to vivSit all the State institutions, and as there are
fifteen of them in different parts of the State this is not too
much. — \_Editorial in Indianapolis Journal, Feb. i, i8gj.
EDUCATIONAI. MEANINGS.
1. "There is much 3'et to be said upon the well-worn
subject, Bible study. There is still occasion to ask the
question — and to ask it with all the emphasis which lan-
guage can furnish — is the Bible of all books, the book to be
studied? Shall not our children in school, our sons and
daughters in college, our young men in the theological semi-
naries, study this book, whatever else they may or may not
Thk PROBI.KM OF Method. 55
know ? Shall we teach the most minute and the most pru-
rient details of Roman and Greek history and literature,
and allow, j^es, compel an ignorance of even the general
features of a history and a literature which in spite of every
untoward circumstance have penetrated and elevated the
thought and life of humanity as have no other ? But it is
not my purpose, at this time, to discuss the subject of Bible
study,
• " There is much also to be said, more by far than most
people imagine, on the closely related question, Bible study.
Please note place of emphasis, Bible study (emphasis on
study.) The mass of those who count themselves Bible
students never study. They read, perhaps : they seldom
think , they never study. Shall we continue thus to de-
ceive ourselves ? Shall we substitute the most hurried and
superficial perusal of a verse or chapter for an earnest, faith-
ful examination of that passage, and allow ourselves fondly
to suppose that we have studied it? Shall that which, in
some cases, is worse than no reading at all, be falsely dig-
nified and dishonestly branded as study ? But it is not my
purpose at this time to discuss the subject of Bible study.
" Much is being said in these days about the methods of
Bible study. What method shall we adopt ? is the question
asked. Is there one method, and are all other methods to
be cast aside ? Will two men ever do the same thing best in
the same way ? Is it not true that a method helpful to one
man, or set of men, is often ruinous to another man, or set
of men ? Shall we not seek independence, not only of spirit,
but as well of method, of any and every method? The
word method is too frequently but another term for the
word rut. And yet there must be method. He who works
without plan and aimlessly will find his results without
form, and void, chaotic. But it is not my purpose at this
time to discuss methods.
56 The Probi^em of Method.
**Wewho are gathered here to-day are Christian men.
There is in the mind of each one of us a firm purpose, or at
least a strong desire, to know the Word of God. I have in
mind both kinds of knowledge — that spiritual grasp of the
sacred book, that personal experience of certain truths,
which will enable us to make practical use of the same in
the hand-to-hand work of the street or inquiry room ; that
knowledge the ability to use which measures our strength
in Christian work. This kind of knowledge does not come
at once ; the memorizing of verses here and there will not
bring it. It is the highest of possessions. It is the deepest
of all knowledge. It will come in time to the child of God,
but to him only in time — after long and persistent effort.
" But back of this spiritual grasp, or underneath it, there
is a knowledge of another kind. Must I, for lack of a bet-
ter term, call it intellectual? The two make one; they
must not be separated ; either without the other will inevit-
ably lead to error.
" An intellectal grasp of the Scriptures will lead to what?
A mastery, so far as possible, of the details of Bible history;
a putting together of this and that event ; an investigation
of the great epochs ; a study of the great characters ; an in-
quiry into the cause of things as they are represented in
Scripture and their relations to each other. An apprecia-
tion of the literary forms of the various books ; a knowl-
edge of the circumstances under which they had their ori-
gin ; the purpose each was to subserve ; the people for
whom they were originally written ; their history. An abil-
ity to interpret ; to apply principles of interpretation com-
mon to all writings ; a familiarity with those special princi-
ples demanded by the unique character of the Bible. It is
for this kind of knowledge — critical, it may be called, yet
necessary to a conservation of the truth ; intellectual, yet
The Problem of Method.
57
forming the basis of the deepest spiritual work — that we
who are here to-day ought to strive.
' * The work before us is stupendous. The field is an in-
exhaustible one. An intellectual grasp of the contents of
the Scripture is not something which falls into one's hands
without putting forth of eifort. Effort, indeed, may be put
forth, and the result not come. But the least one can do is
to make the effort.
"What, now, shall be the character of the effort put
forth ? It is this which will determine the character of the
results. Describe to me the effort which at the present time
is being made in any given section or by any individual,
and I will calculate for you the results, which are being at-
tained in that section or by that individual. Everything
turns on the effort, and is it not true a single word may be
found which will describe the ideal effort, and that word is
systematic?'
" Now, let me ask this question : Has the effort which
you have been making all through life toward a comprehen-
sion of the facts and truth of Holy Writ been a systematic
one ? Are you ready to answer yes ? Do you not like to
confess that it is not ? Before committing yourself one way
or another, before confessing that you have not been system-
atic, before dogmatically asserting, at the risk of being
wrong, that you have been systematic, let us inquire what is
meant by 'systematic'
" Have you had a clearly defined purpose in your work,
and has that purpose been a correct one? The stream never
rises higher than the fountain. Your work will never reach
higher than 3'our ideal. How is it now ? Is the ideal in
your case a low one ? What have you been aiming at ?
There are some who study merely to satisfy themselves.
They are always taking in, always adding to their store of
knowledge. This knowledge, great though it may be in
58 Thk PROBI.KM OF Method.
amount, valuable though it may be in character, is of little
or no practical value to those who possess or those about
them. To this class belong many of those who are known
as scholars. Am I here to speak against scholarship —
against the most critical and painstaking investigation ?
God forbid. But is it not true that from the men who have
this great knowledge, the men whom God has given the op-
portunity to obtain it, we have a right to expect — yes, de-
mand — something by way of return? There are on the
floor from various quarters of our country men of the ripest
and highest scholarship in biblical studies. Shall they not
open up their hearts and come down from their lofty pedes-
tal and take an interest in the promulgating of intelligent
ideas concerning this sacred volume? The time has passed
when scholarship should be divorced from popular work,
when men who have great stores of knowledge shall stand
aloof from the masses.
* * But there are some who go the other extreme — they are
always giving out, never filling up. In the treatment of a
Scripture passage it is entirely sufficient to ascertain what
seems to be the great lesson inculcated and to present this
lesson to thOvSe who are dependent on them for the bread of
life without any effort, either to master for themselves the
substance of the Holy Scripture or to help others to do so.'
These people are always applying, seldom studying, never
teaching the sacred word. And what do they apply? Their
own ideas, not the Bible. The pupils may remain under
their charge for many years and be none the wiser as to the
real contents of the Bible. My friends, what is our great
purpose in this study ? Do we belong to either of the classes
I have briefly described ? If so, we are laboring from a
point of view which is inconsistent with a systematic Bible
study. What, then, should be our purpose ? To know the
Bible, book by book ; to become saturated with its thought
The Problem of Method. 59
and its spirit, and then to lead others to the same knowl-
edge. The more God has allowed us to know of its won-
derful truths the greater the revSponsibility which rests upon
us. But, however much or however little we may know, it
should be our great aim to teach that, and not something-
else as a substitute. Why will men, teachers and preach-
ers, with a self-conceit which is incomprehensible, imagine
that their thoughts about the Bible, their deductions from
its pages, are of more value, are more greatly to be desired,
than the precious words themselves ? The world is starving-
for the Bible. A systematic study will be one grounded on
the principle that the sacred word itself is to be studied in
such a manner that it may again be taught to those wha
need it, and not man's feeble ideas concerning it. Have
you in mind, my brother, the right purpose ?
" But your effort, to be vSystematic, must be submitted to-
another test. Has it been in accordance with a carefully
wrought-out plan ?
" Will you recall the steady growth, the wonderful pro*
grCvSs of Israelitish history from the smallest beginning,
through trial and trouble, then victory and possession — the
organization of the nation by Samuel, the establishment of
the monarchy by David ; its disruption at the death of Sol-
omon ; apostasy and sin followed by the destruction of the
northern nation ; again the apostasy and sin and the long
captivity ; the return, almost pitiable in contrast with the
former glory, the bickering and strife, the gradual dying-
out of the national fire, that divine inspiration which had
burned for so many centuries ? Has your plan of study in-
cluded a careful comparison of these periods, their relation
to each other, and the special part played by each in the
great drama — the world's redemption ?
' ' With your knowledge of Israelitish history thus gath-
ered and systematized, have you gone back again to the be-
60 The Probi^km of Method.
ginning and taken up the study of the prophecy (inter-
woven so closely with that history as almost to be identi-
fied with it), and followed, generation by generation, cen-
tury by century, the growing fabric of the revelation of
God ; the lines, branching out in this (direction and that,
now dim, now resplendent in glory; new lines starting up
and moving side by side with the old, until all lines, old
and new, converge in the life work and death of the Christ ?
' ' The man who has not studied prophecy in this way,
noting carefully the origin and development of each of the
many ideas which, taken together, proclaim the coming of
a deliverance and Deliverer, a salvation and a Savior ; the
man who has not connected the prophetic utterances with
the great events of history and personal experience from
which they sprang and of which they form a part, has he
done the work worthy of being called systematic ?
' ' Has your plan made provision also for the great books
of Old Testament philosophy. Job, Proverbs and Ecclesi-
astes ; for that collection of laws, the most wonderful the
world has ever seen ? Have you ever made a systematic
study of that most sacred and fascinating of all subjects, the
life of Christ ; or the life and the writings of the Apostle
Paul? The question is, my friends, are we studying ac-
cording to a plan which includes all these subjects and many
more, in an order which will enable us most clearly to grasp
their meaning, and the mutual relation which they sustain
to each other ? Have you any plan at all ; Is it perhaps
possible that some of us have been moving around in a cir-
cle, and not forward ? Are some of us feeding from hand
to mouth, not knowing, not even caring what is to come
next? Without a plan, flexible perhaps, yet definite, there
can be no systematic study.
"But again: Our work, if it is to be in the best and
strictest sense systematic, must be independent. A machine
The Probi^em of Method. 61
may be systematic, but the human mind, if its system is
only that of a machine, would better be uns3^stematic. The
student makes no real progress who is satisfied with having
learned what some one else has said concerning the mean-
ing of a verse or the scope of a passage ; who always fol-
lows ; who is always leaning upon another. Such a student
crams ; he does not digest. Is craming consistent either
with any true purpose or any prepared plan ? Such work
is done for the moment, not for all time. Is such work
honest, not to speak of its being S3^stematic ? The lack of
independence explains a multitude of failures under our
present system, admirable as it is. Many of us, strangely
enough, suppose that we need only read the notes published
in any sheet, or perhaps only the practical lessons suggested,
and in time we will come to know the Bible. This is wrong,
partly because- these notes are in too many cases the merest
trash, and partly because, even when most excellent, they
are not properly studied. The Bible student who feels that
the preparation of his Sunday school lesson is all the Bible
study which he need undertake, who is satisfied to study
that lesson as he would be ashamed to study a lesson for
the school room, often, oh, how often, makes an out-and-
out failure. Crutches are freely furnished us these days —
so freely indeed, that too many of us have forgotten how to
stand on our own feet. If our work is to be systematic, it
must be planned and executed independently, and not in
slavish dependence upon some one man or set of men.
*' A systematic study of the Bible will be a logical, philo-
sophical study of it. It will not be the mere memorizing of
a list of names and dates ; the naming of the most impor-
tant cities, villages, rivers and mountains. It will not be a
study of a verse here and a passage there without consider-
ing that verse or passage in the light of the context. It
will not be the citing, as from heaven, of words quoted by
62 The ProbIvEm of Method.
an inspired writer from the mouth of, perhaps, Satan
himself. The attempt to exhaust the meaning of a verse,
without first a study of the chapter of which the verse is a
part, or of a chapter without first a study of the book of
which the chapter is a part — such an attempt is illogical ; it
is more, it is absurd. There must be logical order ; there
must be consecution, connection, or the work will be defec-
tive. We must know w^ho it was, where it was and when
it was ; but we must know more, if it is possible to know
it. The effort will be comparatively a failure if we do not
also discover why it was. But I must hasten.
"Our study, to be systematic, must be comprehensive.
Master}^ of details is needed, yet also mastery of the subject
as a whole. ' It is a mistake to suppose for a moment that
Bible study consists in the study of isolated texts, or in the
study of single chapters ; or even in the study of the entire
book. A man might study verses all his life and know
comparatively little of the Bible. Besides, the man who
studies onl}^ verses does one-sided imperfect, narrow work.
As has been said, he w^ho does not have in mind the entire
book, and from this standpoint do his work, does not and
cannot appreciate the full force of a single verse contained
in that book. The same thing holds good in a higher
sphere. It is not sufficient merely to have a comprehensive
knowledge of a given book. Although we may know the
contents, the analysis, the occasion, purpose, author, etc.,
etc., of this book, there is still something to be ascertained.
What ? The place of that book in the Bible as a whole ;
its relation to other books ; the relation of its contents to
the contents of the entire Bible, to the entire plan of God
for the salvation of men. How comparatively contemptible,
after all, is the study of mere verses ! How much he loses
who satisfies himself that, having done this, he has done
all ! We should be close, critical students of a verse ;
The PROBI.BM OF Method. 63
we should be searching, analytical students of a book ; we
should also be broad, comprehensive general students of the
Bible. Let our work, therefore, whatever else it is, be a
comprehensive work, for, unless it is comprehensive, it will
not be systematic.
''Our work must be one which will lead to definite re-
sults. When one has finished a course of study in any de-
partment he will surely be disappointed and dissatisfied with
the subject, his teacher and himself if he is not able to put
his hands on certain definite results. Now, the Bible is a
small book. It is, we all believe, an inexhaustible book ;
and yet the work of mastering this book is, in one sense, a
very definite one. With a plan of study looking towards
thorough work and definite results, the facts, the purpose,
the teachings of book after book will come into our posses-
sion ; one principle after another will become familiar ; one
period after another will gradually develop itself before us.
"Here, alas! is where failure stares most of us in the
face. We study, and we study, and we study ; in infancy,
in childhood, in youth, in manhood, and in old age ; and
yet, oh, how many of us must confess it, we accomplish so
little, the results are so small, that in the pain of soul and
torture of heart we cry out in our disappointment. Am I
wrong when I say that the actual Bible knowledge of the
average Christian is not one-tenth what it ougnt to be ?
Not one-tenth of what it might be if a more systematic
study were in vogue. Pardon me, I beseech you ; but when
I read the hundreds of letters which are coming to me from
all parts of the world — letters from Christian men and wo-
men, teachers, preachers and missionaries, letters contain-
ing the most pitiable confessions of ignorance, where no ig-
norance should have existed, letters which tell of yearnings
for a better knowledge of the sacred truth — my heart is
filled with indignation that this should be so, for a fearful
64 The Problkm of Method.
responsibility rests somewhere ; and then there comes the
feeling of sadness that the experience of these individuals
is being repeated in the case of so many more. Put the
question to yourself. What are the results of your eight,
ten, twenty or thirty years of Bible study? With how
many of the sixty-six books are you even tolerably familiar ?
How many of them can you think through from beginning
to end, recalling, in a flash, the substance of the entire
book ? On how many of the sixty-six books would you be
willing to offer yourself for an examination similar to that
required of the average freshman in college on Homer?
How many of us here to-night could pass a really respecta-
ble examination on the life of our lyord ? Definite results,
definite results, we must have, and if our study does not
bring them we may confidently believe that somehow,
somewhere, something is wrong. Surely no study deserves
the name systematic, no stud}^ can be systematic which does
not produce them.
' ' A word now in conclusion :
' ' Have you a clear and definite purpose in mind as to
what you are studying for? As to what you are trying to
accomplish ?
' * Have a sharply outlined plan in which provision is
made for the intelligent study, one by one, of the great
epochs, the great characters, the great doctrines, and above
all that great life, the life of Christ ?
' ' Have you decided that you will think for yourself, that
you will use the mind which God has given you, employing
aids and assistance only when it is necessary and wise ?
* ' Is your study in accordance with the great principles
which underly the working of the human mind ? Are you
logical ? Is there order, connection, consecution ?
' ' Is your work comprehensive ? Are you careful not to
lose yourself in a wilderness of detail ; forgetting the great
The PROBI.EM OF Method. . 65
purpose and the broad plan with which you began your
work ?
*' Is your work producing results? At the end of every
month, or three months,. or six months, can you feel that,
you have made progress ? Are the books of the Bible com-
ing, one by one, into your possession ? Are you beginning
to look forward to the time when every book will, in some
sense, have been mastered ? How is it ? Are these things
so ? Your work then is systematic.
"This book, your book, my book, God's book — this
book, I say, we must study ; we must study it in no other
way than did the Incarnate Word Himself. Let us take Him
as our model, in this as in all work. We must study it rev-
erently, for it is divine ; study it historically, for it is hu- '
man ; and study it systematically, for we were created in
the image of God, and endowed with minds, minds which
our Creator intended we should use.
" And in such a work, undertaken by the intelligent men
of our day, entered into wnth such a spirit and pursued in
such a manner, with God Himself over all and in all, it is
not for the tongue of man to describe, nor for the mind of
man to comprehend what would be accomplished. — [Lec-
ture by Dr. W. R. Harper, at Plyjnouth Church, hidianap-
oils.
2. A reconstruction of education must come in this
country, and the best methods of character-education be
made universal. — {Review of Reviezvs, p. 68 1, Dec. i8p6.
3. She (Switzerland) owes her admirable system of laws
to 'h^r methods of education. — [Revzeza of Reviews, p. 682,
Dec. i8g6.
The almost universal education of children under the
Froebel methods seems to be close at hand ; it is the new
> movement of the age. But Froebel' s methods need evolu-
66 The Problem of Method.
tion and expansion to meet the republican spirit of to-day
in the Pan-American field. Among his methods, which
merit a fuller expression in our child schools of ethical cul-
ture, we may note :
a. Educational walks.
This plan belonged to the methods of both Pestalozzi and
Froebel. These teachers took their pupils to places for the
study of local history, to the flowers for botany, to the rocks
for geology, and to nature for all nature's lessons of life,
etc.
b. Froebel' s plan of associating children with little ani-
mals and birds, in order to teach them the brotherhood of
all creatures, the oneness of life, and how to treat dumb
animals, has found illustration in many kindergarten
schools, but in some places has not been regarded as a very
essential feature of his method. But this is an essential
Tuethod of heart education, etc.
c. Patriotic education.
This is finding a place in most American kindergarten
schools. As in Switzerland, the children march with the
flag, and sing the songs of Justice and Liberty, etc.
d. Teaching of self-control is an essential part of the
Froebel method, and in no country is this moral development
more needed than in ours. " To give firmness to the will,
to quicken it, and to make it pure, strong, and enduring, in
a life of pure humanity,,, says Froebel, *' is the chief con-
cern in instruction and in the school," etc.
e. Stories of imagination. We must have a new litera-
ture for children to meet the needs of the educational re-
vival, after the Swiss and German school methods, which
follow the Hebrew parables. Tales of Indians, bear-hunts,
and of boys who were men before their time, have had their
day of our children's reading. The time has come for a large
Thk Problem of Method. 67
place in the education of the creative imagination for the
imagination largely governs life, etc.
f. Kindergartens for friendless children. The lich need
kindergartens as well as the poor, for this form of educa-
tion is the soul's school. But we believe that no other char-
ity represents so much in life as the kindergarten, for it
stands for the moral evolution of life from the beginning ; it
is the gospel of the Sermon on the Mount of beatitudes put
into the heart and habits of the child by the natural way of
the playground, through the exercise of the creative facul-
ties. — \Ki7idergarttn Age, Review of Reviews, Dec, 18^6.
4. What has inductive, statistical, or scientific child-
study accomplished thus far that would suggest modifica-
tions in the present curricula or methods of teaching in our
schools ?
How may the results of child-study be best embodied in
the curricula and methods of teaching in our schools as rap-
idly as they become reasonably well established? — \_The Bicl-
letin, Vincennes, hid., Jan., iSg'j.
5. Probably no person who has undertaken the subject
of child-study has done so much to interest the average
teacher as Earl Barnes. He has a method of study all his
ow^i, which he has used industriously as may be seen when
one reads his Studies in Education now being published. A
sample of the Barnes method will illustrate :
Once a mother gave a child for a birthday present — the
child w^as just 6 years old — a beautiful box of paints. In
the afternoon while the mother w^as busy in another room,
the child painted all the parlor chairs so as to make them look
nice, and then called out: " O mamma, come and see how
pretty 1 have made the parlor." The paint could not be
washed off and vSO the chairs were spoiled. What would
3^ou have said or done had you been the child's mother?
6S The Problem of Method.
One day the teacher left the room and while she was
gone, several children in the room began to make a noise.
The teacher heard the noise as she came back, but did not
know which children were out of order, and none of the
class would tell her. So she kept the whole class in after
school. Was the punishment just or unjust, and why?
Thousands of children were given these and like stories
for language exercises. The papers were sent to Prof. Barnes
who made a careful study of each set. — \The Bulletin^ Vin-
cenfies, Ind.,Jan.^ iSgy.
6. These illustrations, though long, illustrate the method
of presenting the story of Dante to children. It is translat-
ing it into their own experience. — [/*. ^5 of Leaflet 12.
7. ''Should a Divinity School Teach the Student What
to Believe, or How^ to Think ? "
* ' The answer which should be given to this question by a
divinity school is not differe^it from the answer which should
be given by any other sort of school, as, for example, by a
school of law or medicine. It is necessary that the lawyer,
at the very beginning of his practice, have a mind well
stored with knowledge concerning laws and precedents and
courts, else woe be to his clients. It is necessary also that
he have a mind well trained to think, else woe to his clients.
The same two-fold preparation is necessary for the physi-
cian. There w^as once a sy.stem of medicine the professors
of which proposed to deal simply wdth facts easily ascer-
tained and catalogued, to treat the symptoms of disease
with little reference to its causes, to have remedies set down
in the book appropriate to each ache and pain and fever and
chill, and thus to dispense with thought. Students were
prepared in a few months to practice medicine in this way.
A frightful record of failure to cure soon evinced the folly
of this education. But it would have been equally foolish
The ProbIvKm of Method.
69
to send the young physician into the world with no prepa-
ration except the mastery of the laws of reasoning. It is even
more necessary for the minister than for the lawyer and the
physician to be acquainted with a wide range of truth and
also to be able to employ it thoughtfull}^ and wisely. To
administer error to his people is as much more hurtful than
to administer poison as the soul is of greater value than the
body, and as eternity is longer than time. To administer
truth to them is the one function of his office, since it is
only by means of the truth that God will bring them to re-
pentance and afterward perfect them in holiness : * ' Sanc-
tify them through the truth : thy word is truth." Yet
truth, to be effectual, must be presented in reasoned forms ;
the minister must use it so as to convince and to persuade ; he
must interpret it to the mind and to the heart; he must adapt
it to the various characters, to the experience, and to the
wants of his hearers ; and hence he must think.
" I conclude, therefore, that it is the function of a divinity
school to teach both what to believe and how to think.
''But let us assume for a moment that the chief aim of the
divinity school should be to make thinkers of students. Let
us then ask how this can best be done. Various methods
have been employed, and I request you to look at them.
' ' First. The education which appeals chiefly to the mem-
ory has often been tried, and it is still in favor with many.
It prevails in England in those schools which exist for the
purpose of training young men for the civil service examin-
ations. It prevails in this country in a large number of pri-
vate schools which secure patronage by guaranteeing to fit
any student for college in a given length of time, often very
brief. In a school of this kind there is a large body of
teachers, each one of whom has certain hours of work in
the class room and certain other hours of private tutoring,
during which he communicates to the student the tasks of
70 The Problem of Method.
the coming day. The student does not acquire ; he only
receives.
' ' Such an appeal to the memor}^ once constituted the prin-
cipal function of the teacher, and this method of education
was predominant in the lower schools of the whole world
throughout the seventeenth century, and a large part of the
eighteenth. It was reinforced by the daily use of the rod.
Boys and girls were prepared for life as geese are prepared
for the market in Strassburg, where the}^ are kept in cages
and crammed wath food through a pipe thrust down their
necks. This was supposed to be the only successful method
of making thinkers ; but we now know that the student re-
sembled a goose not only while he was subjected to it, but
also afterward so long as he lived.
''Are there any schools in which men are trained for the
the ministry chiefly by the communication of truths to be
accepted with little regard to their systematic arrangement
or their relation to human reason and with no requirement
of independent research? I could name several. Their
supporters believe that the method which prevails in them
produces trained thinkers. There is no ground, however,
on which it can be justified, and it must prove as inadequate
in a divity school as elsewhere.
' 'Another method of teaching men to think is that of specu-
lation. Its native home is German}^, that land of great
realities and great dreams ; but like many other natives of
Germany it has emigrated, and other countries are now re-
ceiving whatever good or evil it has to give. Look back at
the great outburst of pantheistic philosophy under Fichte,
Shelling, and Hegel, a storm which bore everything before
it, and drew into its vortex every faculty of philosophy in
the German universities. No professor was called a thinker
who opposed its course, and any professor was reckoned as
a thinker if he could expound and extend these speculations.
The Problem of Method. 71
Students rushed in thousands to the lectures of such men,
confident that they were being taught to think. This is
but one example which might be produced. The history of
theological education is especially full of them ; for theolog-
ical faculties of Germany have been swept off their feet re-
peatedly by overflowing floods of speculation which have
had " their little day and ceased to be."
"But is there no difference between a theorizer and a
thinker ? The theorizer has his office in the world ; he sug-
gests many false things and some true ones : he stimulates
the imagination and provokes discussion ; he is the Will-o'-
the-wisp of science, dancing forward to lure it to regions
hitherto dim and unknown, but preferring to hold his course
over the marshes and jungles where it is dangerous to follow.
The thinker has a far higher place. The thinker is the man
who thinks soberly, justly, profoundly ; who can distin-
guish the proposition that is proved from the proposition
that is only probable, and this again from the proposition
that is only possible or certainly false. If the divinity fac-
ulty spends a great deal of its time in teaching the gorgeous
theories which have come and gone in the past, or which
dazzle the eyes of the visionary in the present, it will not
make thinkers, but, on the contrary, will send into the pul-
pits of the world a multitude of speculators and dreamers to
dazzle their hearers, but not to enlighten them.
''Once more. Educators have sometimes supposed that
students could be trained to think by dwelling chiefly on the
laws of thought, the science of logic, the method of detect-
ing fallacies. This was the theory of the middle ages, and
even the divinity faculties of the great universities taught
the logic of Aristotle far more diligently than the Bible or
the creed. This logic was greatly extended in its range,
and became an intricate algebra. We study it in our col-
leges chiefly as a curiosity of history, devoting a month or
72 The ProbIvKm of Method.
six weeks to it ; but at Paris and Oxford and Bologna it re-
quired years. The students were usually candidates for the
priesthood. What was the result of this excessive cultiva-
tion of the art of reasoning? The student gathered no suf-
ficient materials on which to exercise his art, so that, in
general, it remained a mere art. At its very best it gave
us the old scholastic philosophy and theology, which the
world was already laughing to scorn before the Reforma-
tion appeared. It affected preaching disastrously, for the
preacher who did not interlard his sermons with its unintel-
ligible jargon was supposed, even by the common people,
not to be able to think, and could not get a hearing. Try
to read one of the sermons of Wiclif, and fancy it addressed
to men and women many of whom did not know the alpha-
bet ; nay, fancy it addressed to an assembly of the greatest
scholars. Then, while j^ou are amazed that such an appa-
ratus of scholastic logic was ever brought into the pulpit,
remember that Wiclif was freer from it than others of his
age. Here is a fragment from The Sainf s Tragedy, by
Kingsly,. in which a heretic preacher of the thirteenth cen-
tury is represented as imitating the sermons of friars which
he had heard :
" This man shed blood, and by man shall his blood be
shed. Now behold an argument. This man hath shed
blood, even Conrad ; ergo, as he saith himself, ye, if ye are
men, shall shed his blood. Does he not himself say ergo ?
Hath he not said ergo, to the poor saints, to your sons and
your daughters, whom he hath burned in the fire to Moloch?
* Krgo, thou art a heretic' 'Ergo, thou shalt burn.' Is
he not therefore convicted out of his own mouth ? "
* * Much of the preaching of the middle ages was as tech-
nical and idiotic as this.
"A similar mistake was made at a later period in reference
to the new logic, the iiiductive viethod of reasoning. Bacon
Thk Problem of Method. 73
supposed that it could be acquired and practiced by any
man, so that he would think safely and soundly by follow-
ing its rules.
"The over-valuation of the science of logic, whether de-
ductive or inductive, has been remedied. But it would be
possible for us to substitute for the rules of reasoning in
general the rules of reasoning in some limited field of in-
quiry. We might devote so much lime to the methods of
astronomical research as to slight the substance of astron-
omy and leave the student ignorant of it. We might devote
so much time to the elements of criticism in art and litera-
ture as to slight art and literature themselves, and leave the
student ignorant of them. We might devote so much time
to the criticism of the Old and New Testaments as to slight
the Old and New Testaments themselves, and send our stu-
dents to the churches ignorant of these divine treasures of
knowledge. Thinkers would not be made in this way.
* * How then shall we teach the student to think ? Cer-
tainly not by overlooking the laws of reasoning in general,
or in the special fields of biblical, theological, and historical
criticism. Certainly not by overlooking the great theories
which have arisen in the history of the church. Certainly
not by neglecting the memory. These things have their
places in any just scheme of education, and the method
which I shall recommend embraces them all.
' ' It also unites the two alternatives presented in the ques-
sion before us, so that they cease to be alternatives, and be-
come but parts of a harmonious whole.
"Let us look at the first alternative. The best way to
teach a student what to believe is to present the truth to
him in ordered form and in the light of reason, requiring
him, at the same time, to gain much of it by his own search-
ing. None of you will question this, and I need not dwell
on it.
74 The Problkm ofMkthod.
' 'Let us now look at the second alternative. The best way
to teach a student how to think is to present the truth to him
in an ordered form and in the light of reason, requiring him,
at the same time, to gain much of it by his own searching.
This proposition may not be quite so obvious as the preced-
ing one, and I shall spend a moment in seeking to commend .
it to you.
" First of all, it requires that truth shall be presented in a
logical form, a system, an organic and well-proportioned
body. The truth is not necessarily science ; it becomes
science only when it assumes such a form as this ; and when
it is set forth as a science it begets a scientific habit of
thought in the student. He spends several years in com-
muning with truth thus arranged, and his mind acquires a
habit of good arrangement ; careless methods of thought be-
come odious to him ; and when he writes or preaches his
productions manifest order, proportion and progress. More-
over, growing accustomed to arrange his thoughts system-
atically, he soon learns to make the system which he con-
structs a test of thought, for he discovers that the proposi-
tion which an organized body of truth rejects and casts out
is probably false, while the proposition to which such a body
gives hospitable welcome is probably true. In this method
there is an appeal to memory. But there is also a cogent
appeal to thought, and such an appeal as trains the mind to
think in an orderly and sound manner.
' ' But once more. My proposition requires that the system
of truth be set forth in the light of reason. The grounds
on which it rests are to be adduced, and also the chief con-
siderations which might be urged against it. Thus the
great theories of Christian history will be brought forward.
But they will not be regarded as the chief subjects of study;
they will be assigned to a subordinate place, while the truth
itself will be most prominent. Thus also an apparatus of
The Problem of Method. 75
criticism will spring up and will be used in subordination
to the subject criticised. In this part of his work the
teacher will take care to cast upon his subject the clear sun-
light of reason, and not the dim and deceptive starlight of
sophistry or partisan passion. He will take care also not
to permit his strong personalit}^ and his great skill in argu-
ment to overwhelm his students. He will encourage them
to think independently, to differ from him if they wish, and
to enter upon new provinces of thought with zeal and con-
fidence. Sir William Hamilton devoted one hour each
week to conversing with his students about any objections
and difficulties which his teachings had occasioned in their
minds. Such an exercise w^ould be profitable if the teacher
should conduct it in a fair and open manner, gladly recog-
nizing any valuable suggestion from the learners, and en-
couraging them to think for themselves. It would be hurt-
ful if he should be intolerant of criticism or too dominant in
his defense of his own positions.
" Lastly, the method requires the student to spend much
time in investigation. It does not merely encourage him to
do so ; it lays upon him a command to do so ; and it denies
him full credit if he fails to do so. The teacher can pre-
sent to him only the central things, and he is to gain other
things by his own industry. Thus the divinity school eases
to be a mere refectory where he nourishes himself at tables
prepared for him, and becomes only a gymnasium where he
trains and developes every faculty and power of the mind
for ardent and skillful exertion in the ministry to which he
is called." — [By Professor Franklhi JoJuison, D. D., Univer-
sity Record, Chicago.
8. It is not, therefore, in its material, but in its form, in
its method, in its mode of knowledge, that philosophy is to be
.distinguished from the empirical sciences. These latter de-
76 The Problem of Method.
rive their material directly from experience ; they find it at
hand and take it up just as they find it. Philosophy, on
the other hand, is never satisfied with receiving that which
is given simply as it is given, but rather follows it out to its
ultimate grounds; it examines each individual thing in its
relations to a fi7ial pi^indple , and considers it as one element
of a complete system of knowledge. In this way philoso-
phy removes from the particulars of experience their imme-
diate, individual, and accidental character ; from the sea of
empirical individualities it brings out the universal, and sub-
ordinates the infinite and orderless mass of contingencies to
necessary law\s.
The first period — the vSocratic — is marked externally by
the predominance of the dramatic element, and in reference
to its philosophical standpgint, by an adherence to the
method and the fundamental principles of the Socratic doc-
trine.
Negation is not non-being but determinateness, and on the
other hand all determinateness and concreteness of concep-
tions, all affirmation arises only through negation ; in other
words, the conception of contradiction is the soul of a philo-
sophical method.
It is clear that according to this, the method of Aristotle
must be a different one from that of Plato. Instead of pro-
ceeding like the latter, synthetically and dialectically, he
pursues for the most part an analytic and regressive course,
that is, going backward from the concrete to its ultimate
ground and determination. While Plato would take his
standpoint in the idea, in order to explain from this
position and set in a clearer light that which is given and
empirical. Aristotle, on the other hand, starts with that
which is given, in order to find and exhibit the idea in it.
His method is, hence, induction ; that is, the derivation of
certain principles and maxims from a sum of given facts and
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 77
phenomena; his mode of procedure is, usually, argument,
an impartial balance of facts, phenomena, circumstances
and possibilities. — [Swegler' s History of Philosophy^ iSgi^
pp. IS, i6, 89, 104, 129.
9. While Socrates was content with the reduction of eth-
ical phenomena to their notions, Plato not only universal-
ized the method of applying it to the whole being, but also
sought to reduce the individual notions to system, to exhi-
bit them as a world of ideas. Dialectic is, according to
Plato, the method of the highest or purely intellectual knowl-
edge, in which ** reason avails itself of hypotheses not as
first principles, but as genuine hypotheses, that is, as step-
ping-stones and impulses, whereby it may force its way up
to something not hypothetical, and arrive at the first prin-
ciple of all things, and seize it in its grasp ; which done, it
turns round, and takes hold of this first principle, till at last
it comes to a conclusion, calling in the aid of no sensible
object whatever, but simply employing abstract self-subsist-
ing forms, and terminating in the same. — \Fle7ni71g' s Vo-
cabulary of Philosophy, i88y, p. 109.
10. Still, the allegorical method, applied to Homer as a
whole, is inadequate, does not explain the complete fact.
Allegory in general substitutes for this particular thing said
by Homer another particular thing said by the interpreter,
who thus opens upon Homer all the sluices of subjective
caprice. — \_S71ider' s Commentary on Homer' s Iliad, p. 92.
11. The Ego as Psychosis knows itself as the unitary
movement in all Psychology, as that which makes the mind
one in all of its manifestations. Thus it gives the move-
ment, the organizing principle, the method. As Ego simply,
it is the three-fold process of Conception ; but as Psychosis
it is the mean which connects all particularity and multi-
plicity into unity.
78 The Problem of Method.
The fact need hardly be told the reader that the Psychosis
has been the method moving through and organizing the
present book from the start, the form-giving principle
whose activity is its own content or subject-matter. This
method is that of the Ego itself, not derived from Natural
Science on the one hand, nor from some metaphysical system
on the other. Our science must have its own method taken
from its own theme directly, which is the Ego ; indeed,
just this is the source of all true Method and Organization.
The method is that which orders and organizes ; that
which is ordered and organized is the System. The Ego as
method is the active form, yet just this activity of the Ego
is the thing ordered, or the Content, which constitutes Psy-
chology proper, or the science, the System of the Ego. *
The Ego has division, separation, special activities, or
faculties so-called ; there would be no mind unless it spe-
cialized itself into distinct acts. These manifold determina-
tions of the Ego must be ordered, not from the outside, but
from the inside, by the Ego itself ; thus arises the System.
All true systematization is the work of the Ego, as Psycho-
sis, or as method; it takes the vast details of the science,
the chaotic phenomena, random experiments, scattered ob-
servations, and arranges them by its own rule, which is its
own process. Mere external classification of mental activi-
ties is not scientific, is more or less capricious ; the inherent
method of the Ego must be seen winding through all the
activities of the Ego and unfolding them into a System.
So we have the Ego as 7nethod, as the subjective creative
principle ; also we have the Ego a System, as the objective
ordered series of facts. The sides have shown themselves
different, and have fallen asunder, hence arises the danger
that both method and System may become external to
each other and to their common generative principle, the
Ego, Thus both method and System, especially in the
The Problem of Method. 79
science of mind, may drop down into the sheerest death-
dealing formalism, and mechanical abacadabra. Soul-
destroying is such Psychology, and we have the result so
deeply longed for by a certain school of Psychologists,
namely, "a Psychology without a soul."
But the rescue from such a lamentable outcome of our
science is at hand. Though the Kgo as Psychosis, as the
science of itself in the very activity of self-knowing, must
drop into difference and separation, into the formalism of
method and System, still it has in itself the power of its
own salvation and indeed of all salvation. The Ego as
Psychosis must return to itself, and thus mediate itself
through the Psychosis.
This is the Psychosis grasping itself as Psychosis, the
psychical process recognizing the psychical process as the
inner principle of subject and object and of their unity. We
ma3^ call it the absolute Psychosis which knows itself to be
soul of both method and System as well as the process of
their unification.
If w^e look back a little distance over the road traveled,
we find that the Ego in the Dialetic attains the positive pro-
cesses of both itself and the object, and points implicitly to
their unity. Now this implicit unity is made explicit and
unfolded into the process of the Ego in the Psychosis, which
is essentially the development of the mean process between
Subject and Object. The Psychosis as method revealed it-
self as the active moving principle in all things, as their
process ordering and organizing them ; the Psychosis as
System showed itself as the ordered whole, in which the
process is manifested as result. Finally the separation be-
tween method and System is overcome by a new Psychosis,
which mediates between the two sides of a common process,
and restores them to a new unity. The movement of the
Psychosis is, therefore, to dirempt itself into two sides, both
80 The Problem of Method.
of vv^hich are processes by themselves, which however unite
in the third, which is the PvSychosis of the Psychosis, or the
absolute Psychosis. — [Psychology and the Psychosis, De7iton
/. Sniaer, 1896, pp. S5^, 554- -
12. For these methods will, in all likelihood, be the roads
that lead to the very spot where we are to close our march,
and rest from our journey.
At any rate, I continued, no one will contradict us when
when we assert that there is no other method which attempts
systematically to form a conception of the real nature of
each individual thing.
Hence the dialectic method, and that alone, adopts the
following course. It carries back its hypothesis to the ver}^
first principles of all, in order to establish them firmly ;
finding the eye of the soul absolutely buried in a swamp of
barbarous ignorance, it gently draws and raises it upwards,
employing as handmaids in this work of revolution the arts
which we have discussed. — \The Republic of Plato, i8g^,pp.
2g, 2^p 260.
13. Although the foregoing experiments suffice to show
that the periodic variations were of central rather than of
peripheral origin, I sought a method of experimentation
which would enable me to form a clearer idea of the relative
influence exerted on the height of the contractions by the
fatigue of the muscles and the changes occurring in the cen-
tral nervous system. At the suggestion of Professor Mosso
the following form of experiment was adopted. The flexor
muscles of the second finger, weighted with one kilogramme,
were stimulated every two seconds. Two different forms
of stimuli were employed, electrical and voluntary stimuli,
and they were applied alternately. During the electrical
irritation, the nerves and muscles were stimulated by a
tetanizing induction current, one of the electrodes being
The Problem of Method. 81
placed over the sternum, the other over the muscle. —
{^Pamphlet on Effect of Fatigue, p. ii.
14. Your commission has found it necessary to discuss
the question of methods of teaching in numerous instances,
while considering the question of educational values and
programs, because the value and time of beginning of the
several branches depends so largely on the method of teach-
ing. — \Report of Comynittee of fifteen, p. 6g,
15. The usual way of computing interest is based on 360
days to the year. By the exact method the actual number
of days is found and is regarded as so many 265ths of a year.
This rule is the one adopted by banks and the United States
Government, and it is growing in favor among business
men. When the time in days is less than 1 year, the exact
interest is found by hrst calculating the interest according
to the methods already given, and deducting -^^ from the re-
sult for the common years and g^y for the leap years. —
[Complete Indiana Arithmetic, p. 220.
16. The method of public school education is determined
by the aim and means, i. e., the general method of public
school education is the answer to the question : ' * How
shall we use the means so that we may best accomplish the
aim ?"
Of course this is the foundation of the child's scholastic
work ; and it follows that the * ' best method ' ' of giving the
child the power to read is a very important matter. Further-
more, it is a subject that has attracted a great deal of atten-
tion in late years, and it has occasioned much fierce discus-
sion. Several " methods'' have been championed by ardent
advocates, as the "sentence," "word, "phonic," "syn-
thetic," and perhaps others. Besides these, there is still in
use, in some quarters, the old-style. A, B, C, method.
82 The Problem of Method.
Every one of these methods has some points of excellence,
and a good deal can be said in its favor. Even the old
method, which began by first learning the alphabet, and
then combinations known as the a-b abs, is not utterly ab-
surb at some seem to think, notwithstanding all the modern
abuse heaped upon it. It is the method by which nearly
every one of us who is fifty years old, learned to read.
Herbart's Method of Instruction. Herbart made promi-
nent three things in his science of education ; its aim, the
plan, and the method of instruction. The first gives pur-
pose, energy, and concentration ; the second relates to the
choice, arrangement, and co-ordination of the material ; and
the third deals with the systematic, clear and distinct treat-
ment, and elaboration of the various subjects of instruction.
Basis of Herbart's Methods. — Upon these two acts, ab-
sorption and reflection, Herbart bases his method of instruc-
tion.
Progress of Reflection in Method. — The progress of reflec-
tion is method. It runs through system, produces new mem-
bers of it, and watches over the results in its application.
The Formal Steps. — Clearness, association, system and
method are the so-called ' * formal steps ' ' which Herbart also
designated according to their educational activity, ** to point
out,/ "connect," "teach," and philosophize."
Clearness and association belong to absorption ; system
and method to reflection. The one expands, the other gives
self-possession. — \Piiblic School Journal, i8y(p, pp. 2^1, 26 1,
2y8, 2jg.
17. When work has become a habit, and the pupil has
learned to practice the right method from his own impulse
rather than on account of external authority, his education
in school has ended.
But the subject must be adapted to the consciousness of the
pupil, and here the order of procedure and the exposition
Thk PROBI.EM OF Method. 83
depend upon the stage which he has reached intellectually,
for the special manner of instruction must be conditioned
by this. If he is in the stage of sense-perception, we must
2ise the illustrative method ; if in the stage of image concep-
tion, that of combination ; and if in the stage of thinking,
that of demonstration. The first exliibits the object di-
rectly, or some representation of it ; the second considers it
according to the different possibilities which exist in it, and
turns it around on all sides (and examines its relations to
other things) ; the third demonstrates the necessity of the
relations in which it stands either with itself or with others.
This is the natural order from the standpoint of the devel-
oping intelligence ; first, the object is presented to the per-
ception; then combination with other things shows its rela-
tions and presents its different phases ; and, finally, the
thinking activit}^ circumscribes the restlessly moving reflec-
tion by the idea of necessity. Experiment hi the method of
combination is an excellent means for a discovery of rela-
tions, for a sharpening of the attention, for the arousing of
a many-sided interest ; but it is no true dialectic, though it
be often denoted by that name. — \_R0senkra712' s Philosophy
of Education, i88g, p. xiv in Analysis of Co7ite7its ; hi body of
book, p. ^c?.]
18. Hegel employs in this vo3^age of discovery a method
that he names the dialectic." It has throughout the ap-
pearance of being a stricter method than that of Fichte's
"Science of knowledge," and claims to be objective — an
exhibition of the necessity of the process which is in the ob-
ject before us, in contradistinction from mere subjective
reflection upon it made from points of view external to the
object.
Hegel's method ^o^^ not seek to find an external basis of
attack or defense, but to get this basis from the object
itself.
84 The Probi^em of Method.
Here we have the famous dialectic which is described as
the self-movement of the notion {Begriff). Seize an im-
perfect idea and it will show up its imperfection b}^ leading
to and implying another idea as a more perfect or complete
form of it. Its imperfection wall show itself as dependence
on another. This is the philosophic method seen so clearly
by Plato and stated in his Repiiblie (Book VII, chapter 8).
Pure science according to him has a dialectic viethod and
starts with hypotheses — or, as we should describe them, de-
pendent ideas, ideas that imply other ideas to make them
possible, just as the idea of inner and outer or positive and
negative imply each other. But this dialectic method annuls
these hypotheses on its way towards the highest principle.
****** The etymological ground is a dan-
gerous one, however, and it is better not to build on it.
Plato seems to mean that the dialectic method starts with
premises given by sense- perception and ordinary reflection,
and seeking the presuppositions of these ascends to the
first principle. An example of this is found in the infer-
ence of independent being as the necessary condition
for the existence of dependent being, and this may be said
to be the substantial insight lying at the basis of all true
philsophy. Plato contrasts this method of ascending from
the imperfect to the perfect by discovering presuppositions,
with the geometric method that uses axioms or fixed. hypo-
theses, not being able to deduce them or explain them. —
\HegeVs Logic, 1890, pp. 57, 58, 174, 17s.']
PEDAGOGICAI. MEANINGS.
1. 7^<?/i^^^ of presenting.
a. Teach the poem as a reading lesson. If the thought
is mastered the song will be full of meaning, and will not
be given as a mere saying of words.
b. Teach the melod}^ by singing each phase until it is
The Problem of Method. 85
correctly given. — \Oiitline of Music for Township Institute
Work, Vigo Cotmty Schools, i8p6-'/.']
2. Francis Bacon had little aptitude for scientific re-
search. He added nothing to the sum of scientific knowl-
edge, 3"et he gave his name to the scientific method, and
wrote a book which in epoch-making power stands beside
Descarte's Discourse, Newton's Principia, and Darwin's
Origin of Species. >!<>!<* Thus at the outset Bacon sees
that there is a method by which all human knowledge can
be placed upon a sound and permanent basis, and he devoted
the better part of his life to the attempt to discover or in-
vent such a method. His first aphorism printed at the head
of this chapter, indeed, its very first line, " a man, the ser-
vant and interpreter of nature," embodies the whole of the
scientific spirit and the scientific method. * >1^ * These
subjects are discussed with constant reference to the new
method which he believes able and destined to work a revo-
lution in human thought and life. * * * (1) Methods
used. The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give
stability to the errors which have their foundation in com-
monly received notions than to help the search for truth.
The syllogism consists of propositions, propositions consist
of words, words are symbols of notions. Therefore if the
notions themselves are confused there can be no firmness in
the superstructure. It commands assent to the proposition,
but does not take hold of the thing. There are and can be
only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The
one rises from the senses and particulars to the most general
axioms, (laws), and from these principles, the truth of
which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to
judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this
wa}^ is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the
senses, and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken
ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of
86 The Problem of Method.
all. This is the true way, but as yet untried. It can not
be that axioms established by argumentation should avail
for the discovery of new works ; since the subtlety of nature
is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument.
But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily
discover the way to new particulars, and thus render science
active. The only hope, therefore, lies in a true induction, O^ie
method of delivery alone remains to us, which is simply
this : we must lead men to the particulars themselves, and
their series and order ; while men on their side must force
themselves for awhile to lay their 7iotions by and begin to famili-
arize themselves with facts. The conclusions of human rea-
son as ordinarily applied in matters of nature, I call for the
sake of distinction. Anticipations of Nature (as a thing rash
or premature). That reason which is elicited from just
and methodical process I call hiterpretation of Nature. — \J^a-
conia7i Revolt, hilajid Educator, October, i8p^.~\
3. But it is no less true that these complaints are due in
no small measure to false methods of linguistic training gener-
ally, or to some cherished prejudices in favor of certain lan-
guages on the part of the teachers ; and it becomes, there-
fore, at the present day, a matter of great practical impor-
tance to inquire how far our traditional methods of teaching
languages are in conformity with the method of Nature in
her great art of thought-utterance, and how far they may
justly be called on to submit themselves to a revision and a
reconstitution.
As language is a function which belongs as much to every
normal human creature as seeing or hearing, there can be
no difficulty in finding out the method of Nature in its ac-
quisition. We have to answer only two questions : first,
what are the factors of the process by which the human
babe from being capable merely of inarticulate cries, like
anv of the lower animals, is developed into an easy and
Thk Problem of Method. 87
graceful manipulator of articulate .speech ? and again, How
far, and in what respects, does this model require to be
modified in order to enable the expert handlers of the mother
tongue to use an}^ second or third language with like ex-
pertness ?
Why does it seem such a difficult business to acquire a
familiar knowledge of any foreign language, and why so
much brain and so much time spent so frequently on their
acquisition with such scanty results ? The answer can be only
one : because your teacher has ignored the method of Na-
ture, and given you a bad substitute for it in his own de-
vices ; instead of speaking to you and making you respond,
in direct connection of the old object with the new sound,
and thus forming a living bond between the thinking soul,
the perceptive sense, and the significant utterance, he sends
you to a book, there to cram yourself with dead rules and
lifeless formulas about the language, in the middle of which
he ought to have planted you at the start.
These things being so, and the iuethod of nature being so
plain in the matter, we now ask what are the causes that
have led so many of our teachers, even the most accom-
plished of their class, to neglect so infallible a guide, and to
follow methods of linguistic inculcation equally unpleasant in
the process and unprofitable in the result ?
IvCt books and not living converse be the final end of the
study of languages ; so they certainly are with the dead lan-
guages ; but even with regard to them it is quite certain
that the familiarity and frequent repetition which are the
special virtues of the conversational method both render the
mastery of books, as in the case of the mother tongue, more
complete, and the hold of the printed signature at once
more firm in the grasp and more easy in the approach.
There is one other objection to the conversational method
in the teaching of languages, viz : that it makes a man a
88 The Problem of Method.
parrot. Well, a parrot is an imitative animal, and so is a
man, and so far must not be ashamed to own his kinship
with the plumy prattler.
In conclusion, I have a word or two to say with regard to
the occasion and the plan of this little book. In the first
place, whatever may be said of Hebrew or Latin, Greek is a
living language, and must be treated as such even by those
who persist in the notion that, while the method of living
vocal appeal applies in its full extent to modern languages,
it is certainly out of place in the treatment of the two an-
cient languages which justly claim the first place in the lin-
guistic culture of our highest schools.
But since that time, as a natural consequence of the great
educational movement of the age, some very distinct voices
have come to my ear. to the effect that there is something
radically wrong in our way of dealing with languages, and
that the method of teaching by rules and grammar mainly
can no longer be tolerated.
When the young Hellenist has stamped its Greek desig-
nation directly on every object that meets his eyes, and con-
nected it with some single verb that belongs to its signifi-
cance in familiar life, I would then suggest that the teacher,
besides the daily repetition of certain forms of common con-
versation, should give a viva voce description of pictures
hung on the wall two or three times a week, which the
learner shall be called on to repeat without any written
notes ; the principle of the method being always to maintain
the direct action of the mind on the object, through the in-
strumentality of the new sound, without the intervention
of the mother tongue.
One other matter requires special notice — a matter not
necessarily connected with the colloquial method, but which
may be wisely used as a help. To each lesson I have ap-
pended a short list of English words, either by family affin-
The Probi^em of Method. 89
ity, or by direct borrowing through the I^atin, radically
identical with the Greek. — {Preface in Blackie' s Greek
Primer, pp. v fo xv.~\
4. In this paper I attempt to contrast the methods of
the Kindergarten with those of the Primary School as it
exists and has existed in America, not with the intention of
disparaging either of these institutions, but in order to point
out a certain fitness of each method for its work in hand.
I claim here, and I claimed long ago when I recommend-
ed the school board of St. lyouis in 1872 to establish a
kindergarten, that the presence of a kindergarten in a sys-
tem of public schools will, of itself, work some change in
the methods of the primary school, that will be a great ben-
efit to those inethods. But I wish to show that the methods
of the primary schools, substantially as they are, have a
foundation in reason, and that it is not well for our friends
of the kindergarten to look always in the direction of a revo-
lution in the methods of the primary school, and the adoption
of plays and games and gifts and occupations, or some man-
ual training modification of these in the course of instruc-
tion for children from the age of seven to twelve years.
On the other hand I hope to convince the friends of the pri-
mary schools that their methods are not good for children
under seven years, but that the kindergarten methods are
most happily devised for children of the tender age —
between four and* six years. As teachers we must not get
the method which we practice in the special grade in which
w^e are teaching so close to our eyes that it shuts out all
other grades and all other methods. We mUvSt study educa-
tion in view of the entire life of man, and never forget that
w^ork with the children is to fit them for manhood and
womanhood. It is not our object to prolong childhood for-
ever ; but on the other hand we wish to prevent too rapid
transitions from one stage of development to another. We
90 The Probi^km of Method.
do not wish to see a hot-house system of education, forcing-
the growth of our human plants for the world market. —
\Harris' Kindergarte^i Methods, pp. J, /.]
5. According to the classification given by Professor
Brooks in his excellent book entitled ' ' Normal Methods of
Teaching," there are four correct methods of teaching the
noble .science of geography. (I) The Ajialytic Method,
which begins with the world as a whole, and passes by suc-
cessive divisions down to the State, county, town or city in
which we reside ; (2) The Sy?ithetic, which begins at the
smaller division, as a schoolhouse, yard, town, county,
etc. , and passes by successive enlargements to the surface
of the world ; (3) The Inductive, which begins with the
particular facts of science, and passes to their classification
into systems ; and (4) The Deductive, which seizes upon
the laws or general characteristics of a group of facts, and
passes to the particulars embraced under these laws. This
last method is more than analytic. It not only goes from
the whole to its parts, but from the general to the particu-
lar. It is not our purpose to discuss now the relative value,
or the proper employment, of these methods We seek the
more practical.
Whether the method of teaching the whole subject of geo-
graphy be analytic, synthetic, or inductive, we recommend,
in place of following the text-book. The Topical Method of
Study.
We do this with much confidence, after years of experi-
ment and diligent search for light on the subject, because
it is the best method thus far found by which to create un-
bounded interest among pupils in this study, and because it
enables the teacher to instruct with satisfaction and pleas-
ure. — [King's Methods i7i Geography, i88<p,pp, 44., ^5.]
6. In teaching the art of reading, he may teach them the
sounds of whole words, and by comparison evolve the
The Problem of Method. 91
sounds of particular letters ; or he may associate with the
several letters their respective sounds, and require them to
construct the sounds of words by combination of the letter-
sounds ; the one course is analytic, the other synthetic.
But methods are right and necessary in their own place ;
they are parts of one whole, related to each other as antece-
dent and consequent. The observation of particulars is an
incomplete and fruitless process, unless it issue in the estab-
lishment and application of general principles ; but the ap-
plication of such principles must be feeble and unreal unless
founded on previous observation and particulars. In giving
lessons, therefore, the teacher must consider which of these
two methods, mainly or wholly, he should adopt. — \Cttrrie' s
Com?non School Educatio7i, pp. 26^, ^/o*]
7. The old, long-established method in arithmetic is cal-
culated to teach the first four processes of addition, subtrac-
tion, multiplication, division, in the order in which they are
named, finishing addition with small and large numbers,
before subtraction is begun, and so forth. A more recent
improvement on this viethod consisted in excluding the large
numbers altogether at the beginning, and dividing the num-
bers on which the first four processes were taught, into
classes, or so-called circles. The child learns each of the
four processes with the small numbers of the first circle
(i. e., from 1 to 10) before the larger numbers are consid-
ered ; then the same processes are taught with the numbers
of the second circle, from 10 to 100, then to the third, from
from 100 to 1,000, and so forth.
Grube, however, went beyond this principle of classifica-
tion. He discarded the use of large numbers, hundreds and
thousands, at the beginning of the course, as others had
done before him ; but instead of dividing the primary work
in arithmetic into three or four circles or parts only, i. e.,
from i to 10, 10 to 100, etc. , he considered each number as
92 The PROBI.EM OF Method.
a circle or part by itself, and taught it by a 7nethod that is to
be set forth in the following pages. He recommended that
the child should learn each of the smaller numbers in suc-
cession, and all the operations within the range of each num-
ber, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, be-
fore proceeding to the consideration of the next higher
number.
In the following, Mr. Grube gives but the outline, the
skeleton as it were, of his method, trusting that the teacher
wdll supply the rest. The sign of division, as will be ex-
plained below, should be read at the beginning ; "From
. . . I can take away ... — times." By this w^ay of read-
ing, the connection between subtraction and division be-
comes evident.
I. The pure number.
a. Measuring (comparing).
o • 2.
n + 1 -= 2.
2x1-2.
2 — 1 -= 1.
2 -^- 1 = 2. (Read: From 2 I can take
aw^ay 1 twice.)
2 is one more than 1.
1 is one less than 2.
2 is the double of 1, or twice 1.
1 is one half of 2.
b. Practice by soi^ving examples rapidly.
1 + 1=? 2 — 1-=? 2^1=? 1 + 1— X2 — ?
etc.
c. Combinations.
What number is contained twice in 2 ?
2 is double of what number ?
Of what number is 1 one-half ?
Which number must I double to get 2 ?
The Problem of Method. 93
I know a number that has in it one more than one.
Which is it ?
What number have I to add to 1 in order to get 2 ?
II. Applied numbers.
Fred had two dimes, and bought cherries for one dime.
How many dimes had he left ?
A slate-pencil costs 1 cent. How much will two vslate-
pencils cost ?
Charles had a marble, and his sister had twice as many.
How many did she have ?
How many one-cent stamps can you buy for 2 cents? —
[Soldau's Grube Method, 1878, pp. 5, 6, 10, 11, 12.']
8. ''While the critics are condemning, (the Quincy
methods) they are found to be diligent in applying them ;
and when well incorporated into their own work, the same
persons, unconsciously to themselves perhaps, will be bold
to claim the methods as of their own originating.
The methods of the Quincy schools are the methods which
have been used and are being adopted wherever they are
known and understood, and wherever the teachers have the
skill and the permission to employ them. — George A.Walton,
of Massachusetts Board of Education, in " Methods of the
Schools of Quincy, Mass." ("Education," September,
October, 1883.)— [77z<? Quincy Methods, 1885, Preface, p. iv.~\
9. Methods and Ways. — A thing is known when its place
and function among other things is discerned. Everything
is a part of a system of things that are .so inter-related that
each forms a part of a larger whole. When w^e explain a thing
we merely show its connection with things already known.
We find that in it which is the same as that which is already
known, and then we string this new thing on this common
cord and say we understand it.
There are different methds of explaining things. Divided
►n one basis these methods are two. One is called the Method
94 The Problkm of Method.
of Discovery. In it the learner is required to take his stand
upon some basis of knowledge already acquired, and then
bring certain things together in certain ways and note the
results. It is the function of the teacher to select the things
and prescribe the wa}^ in which they shall be treated. The
pupil is to follow directions and observe the results. Now
there are many different ways of doing this. Every teacher
will have his peculiar maimer of leading the child to make
these discoveries, but so long as the pupil is required to do
certain things and to observe and state results, the Method
of discovery is employed. With young or inexperienced
learners, the teacher's directions must be much more specific
and detailed, than with learners of larger experience, or
more mature age. Let it be noted, however, that the prac-
tice of this method di^mdiXiA^ of the teacher that he direct what
objects be selected, and what be done with them. In this
he employs the other method^ called by writers generally the
Method of Instruction. He instructs them what to do, but
does not instruct them as to results.
The Method of Instruction differs from that of Discovery
in this, that the teacher or book presents to the learner both
the procevSS and the result. He is required to follow merely
the instructor and think his thoughts after him throughout
the entire process. Having been told what the result will
be, he knows what to expect, when the things are brought
together, and the experiment is performed to test the truth
of the teacher's statement. This experiment makes more
vivid the knowledge because words will not cause the mind
to construct so distinct an image as objects will. But there
is no discovery in this method. It is making clearer what
was told aud was vaguely seen before. Now there may be
many ways in which this instruction can be given. The in-
dividuality of each teacher is shown b}^ the way he adopts.
Methods of teaching are few, but the ways in w^hich a
The Problem of Method. ' 95
method may be followed are many. We hold that it is the
proper function of teachers of pedagogy, school journals,
and professional books to discuss and help teachers to deter-
mine what are the best fnethods, but that they should pay
little attention to individual ways of following these methods.
That is a realm in which the teacher should be left to act
freely, untrammelled by what he may conceive to be the
dictates of superior wisdom. If he has a clear idea of the
thing to be done, and of the method of the doing, he will be
certain to do it more satisfactorily if left free to determine
his own way. To prescribe a way for him is quite as apt
to trammel as to assist him. — \The Public School Journal,
March, i8^i, pp ^2^, J28.']
10. It is not incumbent on teachers to mark out a course
of study, for that is always provided, or at least should be. It
is their function to interpret and teach what is indicated in the
course of study. It is very noticeable that the "eternal
why of things" has not been as carefully consi<lered and
answered as the importance of the work demands.
When asked why we teach certain things in a certain
manner there is often a look of blank surprise which ex-
presses, at least, a query as to whether work and methods
are legitimate fields of investigation. — \^The Inland Educa-
tor, Jan., iS^y, p. 2pi.^
11. Geography, well taught, is an educational study
cultivating the imagination and judgment, as well as the
memory ; training the mind in both observation and lan-
guage. Perhaps no other branch in the grammar-school
curriculum gives opportunity for culture in so many direc-
tions.
Are we to have question and answer, or topical recita-
^tions? Surely both have a place. During the presentation
►f new points the Socratic method is the true one. The
Iteacher must excite mental activity in the class by skilful
96 The Problem of Method.
questioning. The children must be led to think, to exam-
ine, to express the results of their study. The teacher
should tell them nothing they can naturally find out for
themselves ; but their earnest study should be supplemented
by bits of information, vivid descriptions and other illustra-
tions, given by the teacher, in their proper connection.
This, and this alone, is true oral instruction, the direction
of the mental activity of the pupils. After this come the
memory-lessons, the definitions, and finally, the reproduc-
ing of the different points of the geography of any country,
by topical recitations. These should be the independent
efforts of the pupils, expressed in their own language.
I. Lessons on Place (including Relative Position, Direc-
tion, and Distance).
1. («). Illustrations of the use of the prepositions of
place ; as on, above, before, between, under, below, behind,
around, etc.
Method.
By placing objects.
The teacher places the pupil imitates.
The teacher places the pupil describes.
The teacher dictates .... the pupil places.
The teacher disarranges . . the pupil rearranges from memory.
— \Crocker' s Methods in Geography , 1884, pp. 5, d. 7, /o.]
12. Address delivered at the Winter Convocation of the
Morgan Park Academy, January 4, 1897, by Robert H.
Cornish :
" Science is classified knowledge. When the facts of lan-
guage, of mathematics, of history or of literature are put
into orderly arrangement, are grouped according to their
relationship and are explained by laws then we have the
science of language, of mathematics, or of literature.
Science thus considered includes all school studies, and stu-
dents of the branches just mentioned are students of science.
The Problem of Method. 97
This is not the use of the word in our subject. According
to another more restricted use of the word, science includes
a classified knowledge of things objective, that is, of things
that have their existence outside the human mind. Bunker
Hill and patriotism, broad fields and contentment, the ocean
and sublimity may be synonymous terms, but as subjects of
study the surface of the earth and the ocean are fundamen-
tally different from hope and contentment.
Science then is classified knowledge of the facts and phe-
iiomena of the physical universe with an explanation of the
reasons of these phenomena so far as the reasons are under-
stood. But the physical universe is a ver}^ large affair and
is constantly growing larger through our increased knowl-
edge of it. The men who attempt to include the whole
range of the physical universe in their studies are ver}^ few.
Humboldt was perhaps the last of a line of scientific work-
ers who kept in touch with all branches of science and made
contributions to all. Scientific workers divide and subdi-
vide their work and thus we have developed those great
branches of scientific study of which physics, biolog}^ and
astronomy are examples. These branches of science or
sciences are grouped into two great divisions ; (1) the phy-
sical sciences or those which deal with matter and energy.
Physics, chemistry, and geology, are physical sciences.
(2) Those which deal with matter and energy and an added
something called life. The group constitutes the biological
sciences and includes botany and zoology as principal mem-
bers.
Our subject then is the value, in a school such as ours, of
the training of one or more sciences not as opposed to but
as contrasted and compared with other subjects which are
studied by our students.
The time has gone by when it was necessary to enter
into any defense of the place of science in a general educa-
^ Thk Problem of Method.
tion. There was a time when the sciences were not recog-
nized as necessary in a college course, much less in a second-
ar\- school. Latin, Greek, and mathematics, with mental
and moral science which were not science at all, were about
the only things studied at Yale College one hundred years
ago. The colleges all over the country have now admitted
science studies into the general curriculum. In many col-
leges the science courses are elementary in character and
differ not at all from those given in many high schools.
Into secondary schools which prepare for college the admis-
sion of science studies has been slower than into the colleges
themselves. Time forbids entering into a full discussion of
the reasons for this. I agree with those who say that any
subject that knocks for admission at the door of our already
crowded curriculum should justify its claim. I agree with
Professor Remsen who says that slipshod laboratory work
in science is a very poor substitute for a good course in
Greek or mathematics. If science courses in college or the
academy are " snap" courses, if they do not as a rule give
either the mental training or spiritual quickening that comes
from other courses they would better be thrown out. In
order to understand better the value of science in school
training allow me to describe the scientific method of work.
I think it is of more value to the student to understand
the scientific method, to develop the scientific habit of mind
than it is to acquire a few or even many facts about a par-
ticular science. The scientific method has the following
steps : (1) The collection of facts. This involves obser-
vation, classification, comparison, measurement. If the ob-
jects dealt with cannot be measured, if they cannot be
counted, or weighed in a balance, then they do not belong in
the realm of the sciences that I am considering. These ob-
servations it may take years to collect. This part of the
work is of great importance. Every notable scientific
The PROBI.KM OF Method. 99
achievement rests upon a long continued series of patient
observations. (2) The enunciation of a general law which
groups and explains the facts. This is called induction or
generalization. The larger the group of facts examined,
the wider the generalization must be to include them all.
(3) The third step is verification by experiment. This
tests the law discovered by applying it to a new case or by
bringing forward the facts not known when the law was
enunciated which prove or disprove it. If our facts cover a
very wade range of phenomena, especially if they belong to
different sciences or possibly to all sciences, then the gener-
alization wiiich groups and explains them is called an hypo-
thesis. This is an effort of the scientific imagination to ex-
plain the reasons which lie back of the laws themselves, or
to discover a more general law. When new discoveries
have confirmed the hypothesis it becomes a theory and a
theory which stands the test of 3^ears and to which excep-
tions are not found takes its place among the accepted body
of scientific truth. Let me illustrate these steps. That
carbonic-acid gas consists of 27 per cent, oxygen is one of a
thousand or more facts known to chemists. That any given
chemical compound always contains the same elements in
the same proportion by weight is a law whose establishment
at the beginning of the present century was attended by a
long and spirited controversy. That chemical compounds
consist of atoms united to form molecules and that the atoms
unite in the ratio of small numbers is a theory which has
stood the test of one hundred years of verification and
which seems likely to become a part of the body of scientific
truth.
The4 ntellectu a1 fa^ul^i^s called into ex ercise in these pro-
cesses are the powers of observation^-o f comparison^ joi^in-
ductive reasoning or generalization, and the constructive
imagination . The mural qualTtTes"wIirchr'are developed in
100 The Problem of Method.
scientific work are patience in prolonged investigation, per-
severance in overcoming obstacles, and openness of mind
to the reception of new truth. It is not claimed that these
mental and moral qualities are the exclusive possession of
scientific men. Such a statement would be absurd. I do
claim that any investigation not conducted in the scientific
viethod is of ver}^ doubtful value. The dominant motive of
the scientific worker is the discovery and utilization of
truth. To push out the boundary of human knowledge, to
capture some of the territory of the unknown and make it
known is his great aim.
Other motives may lead him on, such as a desire for fame,
for power, or for wealth, but I think it is universally ad-
mitted that the joy of discovery of some truth new to the
investigator is the greatest connected with his work. The
rewards of the scientific w^orker are : (1) the interest and
pleasure of his work; (2) the recognition which he is bound
to receive if his work is well done. It is the scientific
workers whose discoveries afford the means of improvement
of all the material conditions of life. Our modern civiliza-
tion wntli all it includes of material comfort is a monument
to the scientific thought of the age. It is not the rule, how-
ever, that the inventor becomes rich. Neither does the man
of science. Agassiz had no time to make money. Nor
should people be impatient with the apparently useless dis-
coveries made by men of science. No doubt many investi-
gations will never bear any so-called practical fruit. Yet
many apparently useless facts brought to light in the labor-
atory have upon further investigation yielded practical re-
sults.
Why then do we advocate science in the schools and espe-
ciall}^ in the secondary schools ?
1. Because the habits of mind which have been described
and which are generally characteristic of scientific men are
The Problem of Met.hod. 101
worthy of cultivation, and some of these, notably the power
of observation, are cultivated by no study so well as by na-
ture study.
2. The study of nature does or should beget a love of
nature and the love and study of nature become a source of
perennial happiness to him whose eyes have been trained to
see her beauties.
"To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms she speaks
A various language : for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And healing sympathy that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware."
Anyone who has acquired a love of good books and an
intelligent interest in some branch of natural history has two
never-failing sources of happiness.
8. The study of science and the influence of the scien-
tific method lead to care in making statements and check
one of the serious faults of all young writers, viz., the ten-
dency to make sweeping and exaggerated statements. Pro-
fessor A. H. Tolman of the Department of English Litera-
ture in The University of Chicago, in an article on "Na-
tural Science in a Literary Education," says :
" Great forms of thought, mighty molds which of neces-
sity give shape to our thinking and then to our very imag-
inings, these come to us from the study of things, not from
the study of language. Literature itself must largely find
its raw material, its great metaphors and similes, its vivid
pictures and mighty symbols within the domain of natural
science, and this increasingly as the years go by.
' ' The chemist' s law of definite and multiple proportions ;
the laws of motion ; the phenomena and laws of light, heat,
and electricity ; the strata, the glaciers, and the process Of
102 The Problem of Method.
earth sculpture of the geologist ; the winds, tides and ocean
currents ; the theories of animal evolution ; the struggle for
existence, the survival of the fittCvSt ; the mighty phenomena,
the impressive uniformities, the nebular hypothesis of as-
tronomy — these are great forms of thought as well as facts
and theories of science. A man who is unacquainted with
modern science cannot well understand the language of edu-
cated men and he cannot interpret sympathetically and ade-
quately the literature of his own day."
4. The study of science develops and strengthens the
imagination and the feelings. The person who studies the
slow processes of geology and undertakes to find out the age
of the earth, or who tries to grasp the distance to the sun as
a measuring stick with which to measure the distance to the
stars must exercise imagination in the highest degree.
A noted critic said that two men whose imaginations were
the most brilliant of any of their day were Michael Faraday
and Charles Darwin.
5. Science studies appeal to a certain class of minds
which are but little attracted to other branches of study.
These studies are the intellectual salvation of some wlio oth-
erwise might perish by the way."
13. * * The address before the Pedagogical Club, Thursday
evening, February 18, was on ' Music in Education,' by Pro-
fessor Calvin B. Cady , formerly Professor of Music of the Uni-
versity of Michigan, and now of this city (Chicago). Pro-
fessor Cady's methods differ quite radically from those in gen-
eral use, but their value was demonstrated by two of his
pupils, children of ten or twelve years of age, who showed
quite surprising musical ability, though they were supposed
. to lack it entirel}^ when Professor Cady began work with
them.
The PROBI.BM OF Mkthod. 108
Professor Cady said that he would not speak as a musi-
cian but as an educator. The present tendency of education
is development from within. The educational world owes
a great debt to Pestalozzi and to Froebel, but neither of
these, nor yet modern psychology, gives us the true basis
for the development of individuality. This basis as Profes-
sor Cady thinks, is found in ontology, as expressed in Mrs.
Eddy's Scie7ice and Health.
Formerly observation was the watchword of education ;
then apperception took its place. But conception, unfold-
ing from within, is the watchword of the newest education,
and this is the highest of all. The relation of this to music
is that music is idea and not product of sense development.
^[usic is conceptive thinking, and hence a positive factor in
education. Thus far it has been too often a positive evil,
in developing vanity on the part of the performer and envy
on the part of the listener ; in conveying the impression of
musical consciousness when none exists, and in displa\'ing
bondage to the physical instead of deliverance from it.
The usual test of determining whether a child can dis-
criminate between tones is no evidence of musical conscious-
ness. Music is thought which must be grasped. The
musical idea has three elements : melody, rhythm, and har-
mony, each of which must be conceived i.nd gradually un-
folded. Conceptive development may be expressed in two
words : analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the individual-
izing process ; synthesis, the unifying one. Attention is
nothing more than the developing of the conceptive pro-
cess.
The simplest thing w^ith which to begin is melody. Until
simple melodic phrases can be conceived there is no evidence
of musical consciousness. The second step is the recogni-
tion of the rhythmic basis of melody, and the third is the
development of the harmonic basis underhnng the melodic
104 The Problem of Method.
and rhythmic expression. When this conceptive founda-
tion has been laid, the forms of musical manifestation, the
voice, or the different kinds of musical instruments ma}^ be
considered.
Thus music is the expression of the whole of life. Its
principles are as fixed as those of geometry and their devel-
ment as logical. The danger lies in considering music as
one-sided, as the language of emotion only. True music
cannot be the language of discord ; it must express the
highest unity and harmony.
Professor Cady's fuethods are employed in the University
Primary School, and frequent references have been made to
them in the School Notes ajid Plaits as published in the Uni-
versity Record. The issue of February ] 9 gives especial at-
tention to the work in music."
14. In the preface to "The Essentials of Method,"* the
author calls attention to the importance of analogies, and to
the fact that there are many analogical theories of mind.
Of these, two are important :
1. That which regards the soul as a germ containing by
involution that which it is to become by evolution— a self-
active power.
2. That which regards the mind at any given stage of
its development as the resultant of the variations of its en-
vironment.
These two theories are regarded as but two figurative
expressions for the thought that there is a method in the
child, and a method in the subject of study. The preface
adds that the work deals with the adjustment of the sub-
ject-matter and the mind. "It seeks to find the essential
forms of methods of instruction, as determined by the gen-
eral law of development in the mind of the child."
*The Essentials of Method (1897) by Charles De Garmo. D. C. Heath & Co.
The Problem of Method. 105
When the author speaks of a method in the child and a.
method in the subject of study, it would appear that he
uses the term method in the first case to signify a men-
tal activity ; that is, the psychical change occurring in
the child as he develops toward the perfection of his being
under the stimulus of the subject ; and that he uses the
term method in the second case, to signify the external
although invisible activity by which each fact or indi-
vidual of the subject of study is produced. For example,
if the subject of study is plants, then it would be thought
that if the author speaks of a method in the subject
of study he would mean the mode of activity by which
plant energ}' produces the individuals of the plant world.
Such, however, does not seem to be his meaning in exam-
ining the work on pages 91-98. There, by method in the
learner, he refers to the act of observation ; of abstraction ;
of induction and of deduction, etc. This is in accord with the
second view of method. In referring to ' 'methods with regard
to the thing to be learned," (page 9*2), no reference seems
to be made to the activity by which each fact or individual
in the subject is produced. The thought seems to be that
each subject or object is a whole consisting of parts. This
being the case, the child's mind may be apprehending the
whole, and proceed from this to a consideration of the parts,
giving an analytic procedure ; or it ma}^ begin with the
parts and move toward the whole, giving the synthetic
procedure. Method in this case is also mental, and accords
with the second view of method. On page 98, when speak-
ing of ' ' methods with regard to the teacher' ' reference is
made to the " monological " and to the "dialogical." In
the same paragraph the author speaks of the " catechetical,
Socratic, developing method." Ii seems evident from the.se
expressions that he is speaking of external activities, such
106 The Problem of Method.
as questions, illustrations, examples, etc., as method. This
is according to the first view.
The book consists of three parts :
I. Psychological basis.
II. Necessary stages of rational method.
III. Practical illustrations.
Under the psychological basis the work presents :
1. The individual notion.
2. The general notion.
8. Apperception, or the assimilation of knowledge.
Under the necessary stages of rational method, three are
indicated :
1. Apperception of individual notions.
2. Transition from individual to general notions.
3. The return of the general to individual notions.
Under practical illustrations considerations are presented
concerning Language, Arithmetic, Reading, Geography and
History.
The use of the singular form of the word method in the
title of the book, indicates that generally the author implies
the term to signify a definite mode of mental activity, and
not the various devices used to stimulate it. The work is
not, however, free from the latter use. In certain passages
the term is used in a way to imply that the author holds to
the first view of method. In other passages the inference
would be that he holds to the second view. In still others
it would appear that he approaches in his conception the
third view. The following are passages indicating the first
view of method :
1. "It seeks to find the essential forms of methods of
instruction, as determined by the law of development in the
mind of the child." (Preface, page 5.)
2. * ' Physiological Psychology studies mental acts by
observing and measuring their mechanical occasion and re-
The Problem of Method. 107
suits, according to the methods of Physical Science."
(Page 25.)
3. "When we recognize the process of apperception,
however, then the external standpoint gives place to the
internal one, and the teacher regulates the amount and
method of his instruction by the psychical needs of the
child, which are determined largely by his knowledge and
his interests." (Page 27.)
4. "It is not uncommon for us to strive to create inter-
est in study by appealing to emulation, to ambition, to love
of praise, approval of others, duty, etc., or by indulging in
spectacular display in methods. These, and similar diver-
sions may enable us to develop a momentary interest, etc."
(Page 31.)
The following may be noted as indications of the second
view of method :
. 1. " But if the essentials of right methods are observed,
there may be almost infinite variety of divisions in teaching
and reciting the lesson, without vitiating the results."
(Page 86.)
2. " Deduction corresponds most closely to the stage of
application, or to the return from universals to new par-
ticulars." (Page 92.)
3. " The method which begins with the whole and pro-
ceeds to the parts is analytical." (Page 93.)
The work presents, however, a view of method far more
important and fundamental than that indicated in these quo-
tations which are here given to signify the first and second
views. While the prevailing view in the work is not strictly
that explained in the present treatise as the third view of
method, it maintains a close analogy to it, and is identical in
the sense that a true method is a mental activity returning
in new shape to the original stage.
108 The Probi^em of Method.
It will be observed that the method presented is both
triple in form and a return to itself, in that it contains
these stages :
1. Knowing the particular.
2. Deriving the general from particulars.
3. Returning with the general to the consideration of
new particulars.
This is a very important and fundamental view. This
triple movement and return, however, are found even within
the first stage in which the mind deals wdth the individual
notion. This renders the view of method presented in the
book still more valuable, becaUvSe it reveals more fully its
accord wnth consciousness — consciousness being essentially
subject-object or —
1. A potential capacity.
2. Existence in a particular form or act.
8. A return to the subject, in that the qualities produced
in this special form of activity abide in the subject as a ten -
dency, or as apperceiving material for new activities.
In noting the discussion on pages 45-60, in connection
with the illustration on pages 94-98, it will be observed
that the movement of mind in dealing with the individual
object is :
1. To consider the object practically as a w^hole.
2. To consider it "in small logically connected sec-
tions." (Page 55.)
The second movement is callea by the author the law of
" Successive Clearness." It is evident that it is analytic.
These two stages, therefore, resemble very closely the two
that have heretofore been given, in the present work, under
the third view of method. Are the third and the fourth
stages indicated ? The following seems to denote the third
stage or the organization of the distinctions by relating them
to the central unity. " On the other hand, to fail to asso-
The Problem of Method. 109
ciate the parts of the lesson and to bring them to conscious-
ness as a logical unity, would be to reveal the mind dis-
tracted by the apprehension of a confused mass of discon-
nected details. These two steps, the absorption of individual
notions, and their apperception, 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
sub-division without hinting at its purpose — the clear percep-
tion of individuals and their proper synthesis in conscious-
ness." (Page 56.)
As a hint of the fourth stage, (referred to in the work on
page 26), the following may be quoted : "Next to the for-
mation 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 attention." (Page 60.)
In this work, therefore, is found a close approach to the
third view of method.
15. In the preface to " Systematic Methodology "* the
author indicates :
1. That the work is written for those interested in un-
derstanding the philosophy of teaching.
2. That the work is to be a systematic treatment of the
problems of teaching.
3. That parts I and II are adapted to those wishing to
master the philosophy of education, and parts II and III to
those desiring to study merely the practical problems that
arise in presenting the different branches of study.
In the introduction there are presented —
1. The idea that methods as usually given are varied,
Systematic Methodology, by Andrew Thomas Smith. Silver, Burdett & Co.
110 The Probi^km of Method.
inconsistent, and even contradictory ; that they lack unity
and completeness.
2. The author's view that the art of teaching is capable
of order and of systematic treatment.
3. The thought that there are two important lines of in-
vestigation necessary to make methods rational :
a. The study of the human mind.
b. The study of the nature of truth.
4. The thought that in order to make the discussion
complete and systematic, three things must be done —
a. Terms must be used with consistency.
b. Recommendations must not be given in one
connection and violated in another.
c. Methods in the given subjects must all obey
certain well defined fundamental lines applicable to truth
in general.
5. The statement that one aim of the work is to make
clear to the reader that all school studies which have to do
with a bod3^ of truth to be comprehended are capable of be-
ing taught by the same comprehensive plan.
6. The claim that another aim of the work is to make
clear to the learner that there are many school subjects which
do not consist of a body of truth to be comprehended ; that
these are either subjects that may be called arts, or subjects
expressing merel}^ facts to be impressed upon the memory.
7. An explanation of the terms " practical method " and
''device."
8. The thought that method is, in large part, a derived
science.
Under the explanation of the first aim, the author pre-
sents his view^ of the w^orld — " In the world of things about
which we study, only individuals exist, while generaliza-
tions are merely contrivances of man wrought out for his
The Problem of Method. Ill
convenience in-mastering the truths concerning this world
of real, but .individual things."
This same view of the world is again presented under the
discussion of Principle on page 10 : " We know nothing of
the essence of mind, as we know nothing of the essence of
matter. Phenomena alone are open to our study. What
mind or matter does we may know, but not what either is."
Under the discussion of the first aim, the author also pre-
sents ' ' the comprehensive plan ' ' according to which sub-
jects expressing truth may be treated. The comprehensive
plan is " Generalizations of a given order are to be compre-
hended only in the light of the appropriate individuals em-
braced within them." This is termed ''the one compre-
hensive plan or principle of learning."
The book consist of three parts — first, The Nature and
Development of the Mental Faculties ; second, The General
Philosophy of Method ; tliird. Applied Methodology.
Under the first, all forms of psychological activit}- are
briefly considered.
Under the second, three main topics are discussed :
1. The notion or concept ; 2. Distinctions of method
based upon the truths of the concept ; 3. The actual real-
ties of school subjects.
Under the second, four subordinate topics are treated :
1. The four methods.
2. The order of use of the contrasted methods.
8. Special processes in teaching facts and art.
4. The concrete and the abstract in teaching.
Under the third, attention is given to method in the
various branches.
In considering whether the work is based fundamentally
upon the first, second, or third view of method, it will be
necessar}^ to examine certain expressions.
112 The Probi^em of Method.
On page 5 the author says : ' ' Works on teaching abound
in which are to be found many and varied recommendations
in method, most of which do not rise above the dignity of
reasonable devices." This seems to distinguish method
from devices.
On page 11 the following definition of method is given :
" A method in pedagogy is a rational plan or series of steps
for effecting results in teaching."
The first portion of this statement seems to regard method
as an idea in the mind of the teacher ; that is, it is a rational
plan held in consciousness. The second portion of the
statement looks upon it as a series of steps. It seems that
these steps are the outward acts of the teacher, because
they are spoken of as intended to bring about results in
teaching.
In the same connection this is said : * ' Method is pro-
cedure according to principles." This would seem to indi-
cate that method is the outward activities of the teacher
governed by a certain thought or principle.
It is also said upon the same page, ' ' A method of teach-
ing, then, is procedure in teaching according to the princi-
ples of teaching." This implies that the method consists
of the outward activities of the teacher.
On page 12 it is said : " Method is a way of reaching a
given end by a series of acts which tend to secure it, but
device refers rather to a single action." This seems to
identify device and method, in that it regards each as an act,
and the assumption is that this act is the outward act of the
teacher, since the author looks upon device as merely a
single act, while method is a series of acts.
The use of the terms *' analytic method," "synthetic
method," "inductive method" and "deductive method "
on pages 111 and 113, implies, unless closely scrutinized , that
method is the psychological movement of the child in study-
The Problem of Method. 118
ing. A more careful examination of these expressions,
however, seems to indicate that the author means, under
the analytic method, the explanations, questions, sugges-
tions, etc. , of the teacher adapted to lead the child to an-
alyze an object into its parts or elements. The same infer-
ence may be drawn as to the other methods mentioned.
On page 125 the author says : " lyearning should begin
with individuals and should return to individuals." This
outwardly indicates that the third view of method is held.
On page 127 there is an indication that the child is (1) to
comprehend an object as a whole, analyze it into its parts,
comprehend the whole as made up of these parts ; (2) to
conceive from several such wholes a general belonging to
these similar objects ; (3) to discover this general in new
objects. This also hints the third view of method.
On pages 286-291, in considering the subject of litera-
ture, there is also some indication of the third view of
method. The first movement of consciousness is indicated
on page 286, the second on page 288, and the third on page
291.
On page 809 the following statement occurs — "We know
a man, a horse, a house or a piano first as entire things ; we
are able to recognize these things and give their names ;
later, through our desire to know them more fully, we are
forced to the necessity of mentally analyzing them. Then,
after we have studied the details of their parts, we know
the things in their entirety more intimately." This gives
an indistinct indication of the third view of method.
On page 818 the author says : ''The method in this, as
in all natural sciences, should be inductive — leading up from
the individual instances presented to the appropriate gener-
alizations, and then returning to apply these truths in newly
discovered instances." This likewise suggests the funda--
mental movement of consciousness.
114 The Problem of Method.
Under all these uses, however, there is no clear indica-
tion that the author regards method as the fundamental
movement of consciousness in the child. There is rather
the indication that he considers method to be the activities
of the teacher controlled by the notion that the mind ma_v
deal with particular objects in two ways, and with generali-
zations in two ways. Fundamentall}', then, the work is in
liarmony with the first view of method. The principle that
prevents the work from being trul}^ organic or systematic
is the one mentioned on page 8. "In the world of things
about which we study, only individuals exist, while gener-
alizations are merely contrivances of man wrought out for
his convenience in mastering the truths concerning this world
of real but individual things." This idea would indicate
that a greater degree of truth is reached in sense-perception
than in memory, a greater degree in memory than in imag-
ination, a greater degree in imagination that in conception,
etc. This view of the world is essentially divisive. Ac-
cording to such a view, no work can possess a fundamental
unity. The reason is that, according to such a view, the
individual is the only truth.
This view of the world is again reflected in the idea of
the concept presented on page 98. This indicates that the
concept is the notion of an individual object or of the class.
It is to be noted that the class is regarded as merel}^ an
aggregation of individual objects, and is usually, there-
fore, a space-occupying thing. The notion which applies to
a class is regarded as concerned with the set of common at-
tributes. This does not harmonize with the modern
view of the concept, namely, that it signifies the creative
activity producing the various objects of the class. This
view of the world again reveals itself in the division of
method into four kinds — the analj^tic, the synthetic, the in-
ductive and the deductive. If the world is a true unity in-
The Problem of Method. 115
stead of being made up, as the author suggests on page 8,
of particulars, there is a single method according to which
ever}^ branch of study should be taught. The separative
tendency of the view of the world given by the author
on page 8 also manifests itself in the classification of sub-
jects given on page 131. It is further exhibited in that the
author presents the different psychological facts much as
they would be given in a work on psychology instead of
limiting the psychological treatment strictly to those ele-
ments that reflect the notion of method given in the book.
The separative tendency of his view of the world also ex-
hibits itself in the fact that the special methods given under
the different branches of study do not definitely reveal the
idea of method presented on pages 111 to 114. The view
that ' ' In the world about which we study only individuals
exist, while generalizations are merely contrivances of man
wrought out for his convenience in mastering the truths
concerning this world of real but individual things," is the
ground for the various vva3^s in which the author uses the
term methods.
After having explained the four distinct methods as given
on pages 111 to 114, would the author be entitled to use the
term method in any other sense than in one of the four
given? Would there not be, indeed, a tendency on the
part of every reader to seek some one fundamental sense to
which these four could be reduced ? Let the following uses
of the term be noticed in order to decide whether they are
already included in one or more of the four mentioned on
pages 111 to 114.
On page 8 the author speaks of ' * the varieties of so-called
* methods ' of learning as simply * variations of one compre-
hensive plan.' " This identifies the term " method " with
the term " comprehensive plan."
On page 10 the author speaks of a " principle ' ' as the
,r
116 The Problem of Method.
" basis of method." This distinguishes method from prin-
ciple.
On page 133 the following occurs: "Our method of
teaching, then, should be one of imitation and practice."
What is the relation of this method to the four mentioned
on pages 111 to 114? Apply the same question to the use
of the word ' * method ' ' in the following quotations :
Page 134, " It seems to receive attention only when the
study is one that requires in its recitation some special
method of delivery, as in declamation or singing."
Page 141, *' The only difference between childhood and
manhood in regard to these methods is the difference in the
predominant element. Both methods should be employed
always." The author here refers to the concrete and the
abstract methods.
Page 146, "The product secured through such direct
study should be compared with the products secured by the
other pupils through a similar method of study."
Page 167, " This method of procedure robs the drawing
class of its mechanical drudgery."
Page 249, "It is not the ancient, stereotyped method of
parsing. ' '
Page 257, "The child's method of study"; "a method of
testing " ; "the written method of recitation."
Page 263, " History is a methodical record of the impor-
tant events which concern a community of men."
Page 331, " To this end we should adopt what is called
the scientific method of counting rather than the given
method."
On account of the view that the world consists of real but
individual things and that there are no generals in reality,
the distinction is made into subjects expressing truth, those
expressing facts and those that are merely form. This
leads to a variety of method. In consequence, the book
The Problem of Method.
ir
does not present one fundamental method. The tendency
of the book is to lead the student to regard method as the
outward activity of the teacher controlled by the principles
belonging to the subject of stud}'.
16. In " Scientific Method in Education-'^ the " scientific
method" is held to be an attitude of the mind. Thus on
page 144 it is defined as follows: '* Scientific method is
the method, the attitude of mind that makes a search for
the principle under which facts and observations may be ex-
perienced in their relations and made vSignificant." This is
seen to refer to the psychological activities of the learner.
It does not, however, indicate a process of the mind as given
by Mr. Cramer in the '' Method of Darwin," page 30.
Mr. Cramer gives the '*scientfic method" as "observa-
tion, induction, deduction and verification." In both cases,
however, the view of method is that which has been termed
the second view in that it relates to the psychological activ-
ity of the learner. Often in the discussion the first view of
method appears. The following are examples : "Educa-
tional method to be of worth should be scientific method
applied to the art of teaching. — Page 147. " The return to
old methods of instruction and school management, the
repudiation of the theories which have issued from in-
vestigation of biology and psychology have at once indi-
cated that the theories have been found wanting because of
the readiness with which they were constructed from the
few facts." — Page 152. "The application of the method of
science to research in the social heritage of the child of to-
day." — Page 154. ' ' Many individual teachers in the schools
of this country are in intelligent sympathy with the aims
and w^ays of scientific method as applied to education." —
Page 155.
* Scientific Method in Education, by Ella Flagg Young, in Volume III. of the
Decennial Publication, published by the University of Chicago Press.
118 The Problem of Method.
The second view of method is, however, more prominent
in the article. The definition of the scientific method given
above indicates the second view. The following are also
examples of that view :
"The method of the teacher is simply an attitude of
the mind like that of the scientist. ' ' — Page 147. ' ' To teach
children necessitates a knowledge of the mind, the law of
mental activity." — Page 148. "The first element, the
children, necessitates a readiness on the part of the teacher
in interpreting the contents of mind, clear vision as to
their method, and a sympathetic understanding of general
conditions which are indicated not only by language ex-
pression but also by bodily expression." — Page 150.
* * There should be an acquaintance with this which has
been obtained by the psychologic method ; that is, through
investigation, through observation of sequences, and also
by the logical method, that is. through making conscious
standards, or norms, of the ends toward which the psy-
chological material points."
" The two aspects of a subject gained by these two lines of
approach, may be called the method of the sub-
ject."— Page 151.
' ' A growing understanding of the method by which the
mind works and develops shows it to be the inductive method
of the scientist." — Page 154.
The third view appears but once in the discussion. It is
then only incidental. It is indicated in the following : "As
one does not become a botanist or a zoologist by beginning
with the principles and data of pure science, so one cannot
understand the life process of the soul if there be no orig-
inal observation of the activity of the mind preceding the
study of psychology. As in the other sciences, the purely
scientific study must be followed by a return to such material
as formed the basis of observation and experience in the
The Problem of Method. 119
first stage, so in psychology the applied science must follow
the pure science. In the study of psychology, the teacher
must go through three stages : first, the observational and in-
trospective ; second, the purely scientific and experimental ;
third, the applied, which is generally termed educational
psychology. He does not go through the third, he enters
into it."— Page 149.
120 The Probi^em of Method.
CHAPTER VI.
METHOD IN A BRANCH OF STUDY.
One who enters upon an investigation of method in a
branch of study is assumed to be familiar with the facts of
the subject. Upon this basis he investigates the essential
features that give organization to the subject.
These essential features may be held to be — the central idea
of the subject ; the scope as determined by the central idea ;
the divisions and subdivisions as determined by the central
idea ; the relative importance of the divisions and subdi-
visions as determined by the central idea.
The act of the pupil in learning a fact of the subject so
characterized constitutes the fifth element. This would re-
sult in special mental effects. These mental effects consti-
tute the sixth aspect of the method in a branch of stud}-.
There are certain rational means, to a large extent pecu-
liar to each subject, for stimulating and guiding the pupil's
process of learning the subject. The method in a subject,
therefore, includes :
I. The Organizing Principle of the Subject.
II. The Scope of Material.
III. The Divisions.
IV. The Relative Importance of the Divisions.
V. The Mental Process in Learning a Fact of the Sub-
ject.
VI. The Mental Effects.
VII. The Means or Devices.
Of these the central or organizing principle is predomi-
nant. It determines the scope, the divisions and subdivisions
The Problem of Method. 121
and relative importance. It contributes in determining the
process in the child's mind ; the effect produced in the mind
of the child ; and the devices to be emploj'ed. The first
four — the organizing principle, the scope, the divisions and
subdivisions and the relative importance relate to the branch
of stud}'. The fifth and sixth relate to the mind of the
learner. The seventh is a stimulus to the mind of the learner
in mastering the subject matter. It is identified on the one
hand with the knowledge of the pupil, and on the other hand
with the nature of the subject matter. These characteris-
tics of method in any branch of study may be illustrated b}^
the subject of composition.
METHOD IN COMPOSITION.
I. In composition the organizing principle is — developing
thought expressed in developing language for the purpose
of communication.
II. The scope of composition is that range of material
possessing the distinguishing mark of composition, that
which differentiates composition from other language studies.
This material is found to include an attribute which unifies
composition with all other language studies and an attribute
which unifies it with all existence. The first is the par-
ticular attribute ; the second, the general ; and the third,
the universal.
III. The divisions in composition must be genetic ; that
is, they must involve the organizing principle. The funda-
mental division is therefore into developing content, and
developing expression. The developing content then dif-
ferentiates into developing purpose and developing thought.
The form or expression differentiates into changing audible
expression and changing visible expression. Both form
and content manifest nian}^ other subdivivsions.
IV. The relative importance of these divisions and sub-
122 The Proble^i of Method.
divisions is determined by the degree to which the}- mani-
fest the organizing principle of the subject.
V. In composition, as is the case in all other branches
of study, the fifth essential element is the psychological pro-
cess ill the 7nind of the learner.
1. The process.
The first step in the process is the objectification of a
thought. The following paragraph may be used in illus-
tration :
" The word * noise ' is derived from a lyatin word meaning
nausea, through a French word meaning quarrel. The sig-
nificance in each of these derivations is that of the negative.
Noise is sound that is not rhythmical. The movement
of neural life and also of mental life is marked by rhythm.
A noise is, therefore, in a certain sense, a quarrel with these
movements in that it hinders the natural process. Ev^en
rhythmical sound becomes noise if it tends to hinder or to
annul a rational process entitled to occur at the time. Thus,
sweet music, or a well-modulated conversation, if interfering
with a required explanation, conversation, slumber, or rest
of an invalid, is, under the circumstances, a noise. Any
sound, then, which quarrels with a required rational pro-
cess is a noise and a damage."
2. The analysis of the process.
a. In the given case, the first stage in the process is
the indistinct projection of the subject in language. There
is no separation of content and form. If the idea of the
object is present, the term itself seems to be inseparably
with it. If a distinction is thought in the content, as that
noise is a lack of rhythm, the thought does not precede the
language appropriate to the thought. The language is
there contemporaneously with the thought. The self may
be said to think in words.
Composition is one of the best subjects by which to illus-
The Problem of Method. 123
trate the doctrine that the first stage of conscionsness is a
dim apprehension of a fused unity. The above paragraph
when first created was a fused union of expression and
meaning.
The writer may have thought spontaneously of the noise
of a whistle, the stimulus being present. The object
thought of and the expression were known as one. Then
there arose the conception of noise, but the word was there
embodying the concept.
The thought of noise as a damage was the stimulus for
the purpose, and in a subconscious process the writer
thought of mankind as not knowing that noise is a damage ;
created the ideal of mankind as knowing it thus ; desired
the ideal condition and then chose it. The purpose to com-
municate the thought of noise as a damage seemed too gen-
eral and the writer spontaneously limited it to the purpose
to explain the kinds of noises in general that are damaging.
The purpose had now become conscious and definite.
This describes the psychological process by which a self
imposes upon itself, at first unconsciously, and then con-
sciously, a purpose. It also reveals the interaction of theme
and purpose. Often a general theme arises in conscious-
ness which stimulates a definite purpose. This more exact
purpose determines the limits of the theme. It is this sec-
ond theme which is expressed in discourse, not the first.
This gives the purpose as arising first and the theme second
in the process of creating discourse when the process arises
spontaneously.
If the creation of the discourse is assigned from without
the purpose precedes the theme. Thus discourse always
expresses a theme limited and characterized by the purpose.
The purpose and the special theme having been created
in the case given, the writer entered upon the stage of
thinking the subject as a whole, in conceiving it as nega-
124 The Problem of Method.
tive ; this was succeeded by the stage of distinction in think-
ing noise to be negative when lacking rhythm, and when
possessing it under given circumstances. To this stage suc-
ceeded the one in which all distinctions, while held in con-
sciousness, were unified in the one object characterized as
negative. As each distinction in thought arose, it appeared
clothed in its own language. Thus, at the conclusion of
this movement, content and form are fused. The para-
graph, as it exists now in space is a fused product, the re-
sult of the first stage of consciousness, although all three
stages have appeared in the process of creating this product.
That was to be expected, however. If the three-fold move-
ment is native to consciousness all three wnll be reflected in
the first movement itself.
b. The one who has written the paragraph now
enters upon the second stage — that of distinction. Giv-
ing attention to the constructed paragraph, he begins to
differentiate it into form and content. In doing so he enters
upon the second stage of the process in composition. In
giving attention to the expression as it is, the process is ab-
stracting. This expression is then distinguished from its
meaning (discrimination). Other similar expressions are
reacted. Each of these reacted expressions is discriminated
from the meaning and from the original expression. This
terminates the second stage.
c. These different expressions are compared with one
another and with the meaning. In this comparison the
mind enters upon the third stage — that of unifying. The
mind judges as to the most appropriate expression, and de-
cides as to the ground for considering this expression the
most appropriate. This concludes the process in composi-
tion.
In the given paragraph the following may be noted as
activities which exhibit the second and third stages :
The Problem of Method. 125
a. Consideration of the paragraph as a whole. Has
the paragraph unity ? That is, does every sentence bear
upon the subject noise f In answering this question, sen-
tence four may be studied. At first it may seem that in
this sentence nothing has been given concerning noise, yet
if the sentence is taken in its connection with the preceding
one, it is found that rhythm is given as the positive of noise.
The w^ords of transition should be near the beginning of
the sentence vSo as to make the connection between the
thoughts evident at once. Thus the second sentence may
be rearranged and combined with the third so as to read as
follows : * ' Each of these derivations signifies the negative,
i. e., noise is sound that is not rhythmical." In the fourth
sentence the transitional word is rhythm, so it may be
changed to read, ' ' Rhythm is the characteristic of neural
and also of mental life."
After these changes have been made, the paragraph will
appear as follows :
The word ' ' noise ' ' is derived from a Latin word meaning
nausea through a French word meaning quarrel.
Each of these derivations signifies the negative ; i. e.,
noise is sound that is not rhythmical.
Rhythm is the characteristic of neural and also of mental
life. A noise is, therefore, in a certain sense, a quarrel
with these movements in that it hinders the natural process.
Even rhythmical sound becomes noise if it tends to hinder
or to annul a rational process entitled to occur at the time.
Thus, sweet music, or a well-modulated conversation, if
interfering with a required explanation, conversation, slum-
ber, or rest of an invalid, is, under the circumstances, a
noise. Any sound, then, which quarrels with a required
rational process is a noise, and hence a damage.
b. Consideration of the details.
(1.) Attention is given to the fact that the
126 The Problem of Method.
word "word" occurs three times in the first sentence.
This may be modified by using for the second the word
*' term," and for the third the word " expression."
The word "meaning" occurs twice in this sentence.
*' Signifying" and " denoting" may be used instead.
(2.) In the second sentence the expression
" words" may be employed instead of " derivations."
(3.) After the word "rhythmical" the follow-
ing may be inserted : ' ' Noise may lack rhythm in being
too monotonous, as is often the case with heathen music, or
it may manifest an unregulated and excessive variety."
(4.) The words "neural action" and "mental
process" ma}^ be used instead of "neural" and "mental
life."
(5.) After " mental process " insert, " This is
peculiarly true of consciousness, because it is fundamen-
tally subject-object ; that is. an existing condition, a de-
parture from it, and a return to it."
(6.) Instead of the expression, " These move-
ments in that it hinders the natural process," the following
may be given : ' * The alternate ebb and flow of nervous re-
sponse and with the rhythmical process in sense-perception."
(7. ) The expression, ' ' To annul or even to hin-
der," may be used instead of " to hinder or to annul."
(8.) For the expression "a rational process
entitled to occur at the time," may be substituted " an ac-
tivity higher than the sensuous response to rhythmical
sound, or one in the interest of such higher activity."
(9.) After the expression " modulated conver-
sation," there may be inserted " or any similar rhythmical
activity."
( 10. ) In the last sentence after the word ' 'and' '
the term "hence" may be inserted.
As finally modified, the paragraph will appear as follows :
The Problem of Method. 127
The word " noise" is derived from a Latia term signify-
ing nausea, through a French expression denoting quarrel.
Each of these words signifies the negative, i. e., noise is
sound that is not rhythmical. Noise may lack rhythm in
being too monotonous, as is often the case with heathen
music, or it may manifest an unregulated and excessive
variety . Rhythm is the characteristic of neural action and
also of mental process. This is peculiarly true of conscious-
ness because it is fundamentally subject-object ; that is, an
existing condition, a departure from it, and a return to it.
A noise is, therefore, in a certain sense, a quarrel with
the alternate ebb and flow of nervous response and with
the rhythmical process in sense-perception. Even rhythm-
ical sound becomes noise if it tends to annul or even to hin-
der an activity higher than the sensuous response to rhythm-
ical sound, or one in the interest of such higher activity.
Thus, sweet music, or a well-modulated conversation, or
any similar rhythmical activity, if interfering with a re-
quired explanation, conversation, slumber, or rest of an in-
valid, is, under the circumstances, a noise.
Any sound, then, which quarrels with a required rational
process is a noise, and hence a damage.
The process of producing this new form of the paragraph
involved (1) abstraction (noticing a given expression); (2)
abstraction (separating this expression from its meaning);
(8) discrimination (holding the expression and meaning
apart in the one act of consciousness); (4) memori-
zation (reacting or creating another or other expressions
for the same meaning); (5) discrimination (holding each
-of the new expressions apart from the meaning and from
the other expressions). This practically concludes the sec-
ond or separative stage.
The mind then enters upon the third stage. This in-
volves (1) comparison, (the act of considering the expres-
128 The Problem of Method.
sions as to their relative fitness to communicate the mean-
ing); (2) judging, (the act of deciding upon the most ap-
propriate expression); (3) deductive reasoning, (the act of
becoming conscious of the ground or general principle for
the judgment).
Further modification of the paragraph, even in a single
respect, would also involve both the sec:ond and third stages
of the language process.
The entire process is — (first stage) (1) consciousness of
a general theme ; (2) limitation of a general theme ; (3)
construction of a purpose to communicate (consciousness of
a limit in those to be addressed, idealization of condition in
which the limit is removed, desire for that condition, choice
of the;desired condition;) (4) consciousness of the theme as
adapted to the purpose ; (5) apprehension of the theme as
an indistinct w^hole ; (6) abstraction, or the analysis of the
theme into its elements regarding each one as distinct; (7)
judgment that a given element is the central or character-
istic element ; (8) conception or the knowledge of this cen-
tral element as manifesting itself in varying degrees in each
of the other elements. (In all this process the thinking
was in language so that as the thought was produced the
corresponding language was created. The consequence is
thatjthe thought exists expressed and has become an object
for the mind's activity in the second and third «5tages of the
language act, which stages appear as follows): (9) abstrac-
tion of some element of expression ; (10) abstraction of this
element from its meaning ; (11) discrimination of this mean-
ing and expression ; (12) remembering of the constructing
of similar expressions ; (13) discriminating each of these
from the meaning and from each other ; (end of the second
or separative stage); (14) comparing the expressions as to
their fitness to express the meaning ; (15) judging the ex-
pression most appropriate to the meaning ; (16) reasoning
The Problem of Method. 129
deductively as to the ground for the judgment ; (the end of
the third stage).
VI. Among the rnental effects to be produced by composi-
tion, the following may be noted :
1. As related to the whole.
The establishment of the first stage of the language
•activity as a habit. (^Psychology , Dewey, page 211.) This
involves sense-perception of the expression ; the imaging or
thinking of the meaning in an indefinite way ; the think-
ing of the meaning in more definite form ; the creation of
a distinct purpose ; the expression of the meaning as
adapted to the purpose ; the thinking of the language and
its correspondence to the meaning.
2. As limited to the separate elements :
a. Meaning or content.
Distinct knowledge of the purposes of discourse.
Knowledge of the three kinds of objects (objective, sub-
jective and figurative) and of the four subordinate kinds —
(individual object changing, etc.)
Fuller knowledge of the various attributes and relations
of objects.
Emphasis of the relations of (1) fused unity (2) differ-
ence, and (3) unity after difference.
A strong sense of order in the unfolding" of an action or
of an object.
A consciousness of the central law of discourse — unity
(purpose) — and of subordinate laWvS — selection, order com-
pletion, coherence and proportion.
A tendency to have a conscious center in all discourse.
The notion, that each sentence, paragraph and entire
selection has a center.
Etc.
b. Expression.
130 The Problem of Method.
A clearer idea of the three kinds of language and the four
forms of discourse.
The creation of a tendency to brevity.
A refinement of taste in the use of words.
The rendering of iteration purposive.
The rendering of slang useless.
Satisfaction on account of the best field for objectifying.
Etc.
c. The correspondence of meaning (purpose and
thought) and expression.
The habit of self-examination as a test in the use of
words.
Satisfaction in the knowledge of the thought of the race
as expressed in words.
VII. The devices in a branch of study are general and
special. The general device or means is the organized course
of study. This general device in composition may be given
as follows :
The Course of Study in Composition.
stages in the primary grades.
The First Stage.
First and Second Grades.
In the first stage of composition, conversation is promi-
nent. The effort is to have the child acquire the correct
use of language without giving attention to its structure or
to the principles underlying the structure. The result is that
the child is intent upon communicating only, and meaning
and form are practically fused. During this stage there
should be a strong effort to awaken the sense of the value of
power in conversation, and the sense of the importance of the
English language. The conversation is at times to be or-
The Problem of Method. 131
dered, in that the teacher selects the objects, and decides
upon the successive topics.
This is for the purpose of making the child familiar with
thoughtful, regulated conversation manifesting law. At
other times the conv.ersation is to be more fully under
the choice of the child, in that he will select the object and
determine the successive topics. This will be favorable to
his spontaneity. In bringing about conversation upon any
subject, the pupil will be led to objectify freely his thought
in language. The teacher will then aid him in changing
the meagre, or profuse, or otherwise inartistic forms into
clear, concise and refined expression. Much conversation
centers in the systematic construction of a series of sen-
tences expressing the successive phases of an activity in
nature, or in the life of man, viewed as returning to its be-
ginning phase. Conversation also arises in the form of
the free reproduction of stories read or told by the teacher.
The conversational aspect of the work may be supplemented
by its reproduction in script or print upon the board ; by
the expression in script or print of sentences slowly con-
structed concerning an inanimate object, plant or animal
being studied, and by the combination of these sentences,
and their formation into paragraphs. Conversation, and
also all the more definite forms of work mentioned as be-
longing to this first stage, may be both strengthened and
refined by the consideration of songs, poems and artistic
prose.
Five lines of work are thus implied :
1. Ordered conversation on objects selected by the
teacher.
2. Conversation on objects chosen b}^ the child.
3. The learning of selections of a high literary value.
4. Reading to the children by the teacher for the refin-
ing effect of the language and thought upon the pupil's
132 The Problem of Method.
power of conversation, and for the purpose of having the
selections read and reproduced substantially.
5. The construction of a series of sentences expressing
in ordered sequence the elements in acts of nature and in
the institutions of society. (Astronomy, geometry ; an act
in the home ; an act in the school, etc.)
The ordered conversations may be upon natural objects ;
upon manufactured objects ; upon productions in art ; upon
the various activities of institutional life, etc.
Among the objects constituting a basis for these ordered
conversations may be noted the following :
a. Geographical.
September — Equal days and nights ; direction ;
the direction of the sun at sunset.
October — Frosts ; dew ; the formation of dew
on cold surfaces.
November — The winds ; their direction, force
and temperature (the thermometer).
December — The short days and long nights ;
the length of the sun's shadow at noon.
January — Snow flakes ; the covering for plants.
February — Freezing and thawing ; the crum-
bling of clods, rocks, etc.
March — Clouds and their forms and names;
action of frost, rain, etc., on the soil.
April — Rain and its measurement ; illustrations
of evaporation.
May — Examination of a brook ; its action in
carrying and depositing soil.
June — Length of days ; position of the sun in
early morning, at noon and at sunset.
Examination during the year of sand, pebbles, boulders,
gravel, shale, limestone, sandstone, etc.
b. Biological.
The Problem of Method. 133
(1) Plants.
September — Aster, golden rod, mustard, gen-
tian, touch-me-not, velvet leaf, the various kinds of mal-
low, corn flower, dodder, beech drop.
October — The flowering plants remaining are
the specimens of September. During October the conversa-
tions could be based upon the material of seed distribution.
Among these may be noted the sandbur, cocklebur, bur-
dock, milkweed pods, seeds of dandelion, seeds of maple,
oak, beech, gum, etc. During November, December, Jan-
uar\', February and March the conversations could be based
upon non-flowering plants. Among these are the common
puff ball, earth star, the various toadstools and mushrooms,
ichens (reindeer and others), common bread mould, shelf
fungus, mosses (pigeon wheat preferred), ferns, Indian com-
pass plant and other algae.
April — Spring beauty, wind flower, hepatica,
blood root.
Ma3' — Butter cup, marsh marigold (see Songs
;of Seven), trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpit (see poem, Indiana
'hird Reader, page 191.)
June — Dandelion, the various mustards, clo-
rvers, spiderworts, iris, wild geranium, water leaf, etc.
(2) Animals.
September — Grasshoppers, beetles.
October — Clams, oysters.
November — Butterflies, moths. (See book on
|Butterflies, pub. by Doubleday, Page & Co.)
December — Crayfish, lobster.
Januar}^ — Fishes — yellow perch, Jack salmon.
February — The frog.
March — The wookpecker, crow blackbird,
^crows, jays.
April — Redbird, sparrow, marsh robin.
134 The Probi^km of Method.
May — Wrens, thrushes.
June — Hawks, owls.
c. Manufactured objects.
These are so numerous and so common that no
selections need be indicated.
d. Art.
(1) Architecture.
The dome, the Greek column, the Roman arch,
the Gothic window, the spire.
(2) Sculpture.
A selection (probably in picture form) of an
example from Oriental, Greek, Roman, Mediaeval and Mod-
ern Sculpture.
(3) Painting.
A selection from Oriental, Greek, 'Roman, Me-
diaeval and Modern Painting.
e. Activities in Institutional life.
These are so numerous and .so accessible that
no example need be given.
f. Selections to be read to the children.
(Portions of these selections may be committed
to memory by the children after the thought has been care-
fully worked out.)
"In Time's Swing," Fourth Reader, McGuffey's, page
77; "The Lapse of Time," Bryant's Poems (household
edition), page 75 ; " Freaks of the Frost," Fourth Reader,
Harper's, page 46 ; " The Frost King," in " Rhymes and
Jingles," by Mary Mapes Dodge, page 199; "Snow." in
" Rhymes and Jingles," by Mary Mapes Dodge, page 12 ;
" Snow Song," Lucy Larcom's Poems, page 123; "The
First Snow Fall," Literary Selections (Lowell), page 320 ;
" Evening Hymn," Second Reader, McGuffey's, page 43;
"Twilight," Third Reader, Harper's, page 257; "The
New Moon," Second Reader, Harper's, page 161 ; "The
The Problem of Method. 135
boon's Lullaby," Third Reader, Harper's, page 39;
^"March," Second Reader, McGuffey's, page 139; "March,"
,ucy Larcom's Poems, page 124 ; " April," in " When the
Birds Go North Again," by Ella Higginson, page 43;
"The Rainbow," (stanza at the close) Supplementary Sec-
ond Reader, Golden Book of Choice Reading ; ' ' The Rain-
)Ow," Fifth Reader, McGuffey's, page 195; "The Sea-
sons" (the stanza on "Summer"), Fourth Reader. Mc-
Guffey's, page 237; " A Summer Day," School Reading
by Grades, page 35; "The Seasons" (stanza on "Win-
ter"), Third Reader, McGuffey's, page 237; "Winter,"
Lucy Larcom's Poems, page 179; "The Seasons" (stanza
on "Spring,) Fourth Reader, McGuffey's, page 237;
"Spring," Third Reader, McGuffey's, page 132; "The
Seasons" (stanza on " Autumn "), Fourth Reader, McGuf-
e3^'s, page 237; " The Autumn Is Old," Fourth Reader,
Indiana revision, page 234. Other selections expressing
other aspects of life, both of nature and man, may be
chosen.
g. Pictures.
Conversations upon objects similar to those indicated in
the foregoing and graded according to the time of year and
difficulty of use, constitute the work for the first and second
years. The work contemplates a definite period for com-
position of not less than ten minutes from three to five days
during the week.
The Second Stage.
Third Grade.
This second stage, although also one of* conversation, is
marked especially b}^ the fact that it is a stage devoted to
^r the discovery of distinctions. Throughout, the pupil is con-
^^cerned with differences, and is therefore chiefly analytic
^Bin his procedure. During the year the work is to be so or-
I
136 The Problem of Method.
ganized as to lead the pupil to notice and to express himself
as to the following distinctions in language :
1. The distinction of language to express the external ;
fence ; the spiritual ; as, I fear he is not here ; the symbolic ;
as, / am the vi7ie, ye are the brajiches. These distinctions
are to be the more simple ones, and are to be sought in the
readers and in general conversation.
2. The distinctions found in the separation of a stanza
or paragraph into a series of disconnected sentences. The
first stanza of Tennyson's ^/^^/^kS^^^z^ so separated will read —
" The splendor falls on castle walls.
The splendor falls on snowy summits old in story.
The long light shakes across the lakes.
The wild cataract leaps in glory."
3. The idea of the sentence.
4. The distinction of the sentence into its kinds.
a. The distinction of each kind of sentence into its
two uses — to express some fact, and also to express the men-
tal attitude or state of the speaker.
b. The distinction? involved in w^orking out differ-
ent forms for some one sentence, as,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way.
The weary plowman plcds his homeward way.
His homeward way the weary plowman plods.
His homeward way the plowman weary plods.
Etc.
c. The distinction of the sentence into its elements.
5. The distinction of the sentence into its separate
words, especially the chief ones, as nouns, adjectives, verbs,
etc.
6. The distinctions found among words, as —
Common noun, proper noun, etc.
The distinctions under each, as names of places, of
animals, etc.
The Problem of Method. 137
7. The distinctions of words into main part, prefix and
suffix.
8. The distinction between the current and the literal
meaning of w^ords.-f^
9. The distinctions in the meanings of words as shown
by readings from such works as Gilman's Short Stories from
the Dictionary .
10. The distinction of words into those that are mere
signs and those that are onomatopoetic.
1 1. The distinction of words into syllables.
12. The distinction of such words as to, too, two ; in,
into ; is, was, were ; has, have, had.
.18. The distinction in meaning belonging to a word of
one form, as race.
11. The different sounds belonging to each letter.
15. The difference as to the beginning of lines in prose
and in poetry.
16. The difference found in the ending of lines in poetry.
17. The different images for a sentence separated from
its context, as. '* It was standing near the fence, "f
In this work the separate sentence should be placed be-
fore the children upon the blackboard. Each child should
then construct in his imagination an environment which, to
be full}^ expressed, would require the given sentence along
with other sentences. The pupil's thought of this environ-
ment should then be expressed in the form of a brief com-
position. These compositions should afterward be studied
in order to render them both more full in certain respects,
and more compact and brief as a whole. At this stage the
opportunity arises to consider the different images and the
different meanings possessed by the word it in the different
stories.
*See The Problem of Elementaiy Composition, by Elizabeth Sjjalding, page 2;
f.See I^anguage for the Grades, by John B. Wiselj', p. 141.
138 The Problem of Method.
18. The distinctions found in the successive elements in
a full activity, as, an act in society ; an act in geology or
geography ; an act in physics.
19. The different objects, actions, etc., mentioned in a
brief selection.
20. The distinction of the speaker and hearer in brief
selections.
21. The distinction of letters into their form and con-
tent, and the distinction of the elements of their content.
22. The distinctions in the process of writing and for-
warding a letter.
23. The distinction of the elements of suspense, surprise
and suggestion in stories.
24. The distinction of the parts of a reading lesson illus-
trated by pictures, from the parts not so illustrated.
25. The distinction of the use of pictures in description,
from their use in illustrating an element of a story.
26. The collection of examples of simile and of personi-
fication in the pupils' ordinary language.
27. The examination of brief literary selections in order
to discover simple examples of simile and of personification.
Selections from these and similar distinctions should be
carefully adapted to the development of the pupil and of the
subject.
Fourth Grade.
The w^ork in this stage is essentially constructive. Based
upon the many clear distinctions discovered in the pre-
vious stage the pupil now enters upon synthetic work. Of
course the work in this stage is not solely synthetic. A
stage of work in which differences are discovered always in-
volves unity. In like manner, a stage in which unity is the
main thought is necessarily marked by many distinctions.
The different kinds of work are substantially the following:
1. The stud}^ of synonyms.
The Problem of Method. 139
2. Readings on the literal meanings and history of words
from such works as, Palmer's Folk- Etymology, Trench's The
Shidy of Words, etc.
3. The elaboration of a single sentence into a paragraph.^
a. The selection of the sentence, as "The stream
was very clear."
b. The enumeration of appropriate details.
c. The construction of a paragraph based on these
details.
(1.) By class and teacher working together.
(2.) By the individual pupil.
d. The analytic study of paragraphs to discover the
truth that a paragraph is merely an elaborated sentence hav-
ing a common subject and diverse predicates.
e. The reduction of paragraphs to this simplest form.
Suitable paragraphs for such reduction may be found in
the works of Irving, Hawthorne, etc.
f. The analysis of paragraphs to discover —
(1.) Topic and attributes.
(2.) The law of unity and its relation to diverse
objects, and to opposites, as war SiWd peace ,
g. The study of successive paragraphs to deter-
mine —
(1.) That the topic Hmits.
(2.) The form of the beginning in each.
(3.) The mode of indicating quotation.
(4. ) The mode of uniting paragraphs.
4. The construction into a brief organized discourse of
some one of the series of separate sentences indicated in 18
under the work of the previous stage. In this work the
pupils should be led to refine and to render more accurate the
sentence and then to notice the order of the sentences be-
longing to the series, and to decide whether it is the order
*The Problem of Elementary Composition, by Elizabeth Spalding, pages 64-75.
140 The Probi^em of Method.
desired. The sentences should then be unified by the use
of and, for, because, etc. The different thoughts should
then be elaborated, the result being fuller expression. This
should be followed by the organization into paragraphs.
5. Selection of a particular object, as a tree, and a study
of this object resulting in a knowledge of the following laws
of the form of composition called Description.
a. Formation of mental picture (Visualization.)^
b. Point of view\ (Referring to place and distance
of writer or speaker from the object he is describing.)
c. Manner of describing (mode of procedure.)
(1.) Whole by means of its attributes.
(2.) Parts by means of their attributes.
(3.) Reconsideration of the whole.
d. Range of senses appealed to.
e. Action in description.
f. Ordering of attributes. *
(1.) Obvious to obscure.
(2.) Physical to mental.
(3.) Near to remote.
g. Specific language.
h. Purpose of Description.
6. The examination of a brief, simple description of a
high grade in order to discover in its structure indications
of the characteristics under 5.
7. The study of some simple object accessible to the chil-
dren and possessing an interest for them.
a. This study is to lead to the preparation of a brief
description of the object. The description is then to be
studied in order to learn the purpose of the writer.
b. The purpose of studying the description is to
form the basis for deciding whether the pupil selected just
* First Steps in English Composition, by H. C. Peterson, pp. 19-26. (A. Flana-
gan Co., Chicago.)
The Problem of Method. 141
those attributes and parts needed to accomplish his purpose ;
whether they were in the order necessary to accomplish the
purpose, whether all the attributes and parts needed to ac-
complish the purpose were given and whether there was pro-
portion of treatment.
8. The construction of descriptions of objects when the
point of view is from a distance (a device in harmony with
the first stage of consciousness) and when the point of view
is near (a device in harmon}^ with the second stage of con-
sciousness. )
9. The examination of already constructed discourse to
discover cases of onomatopoetic words.
10. The construction of onomatopoetic paragraphs. *
11. The selection of one or more brief narrations of high
grade, upon topics of interest and value to find the follow-
ing main laws governing this form of ^discourse.
a. Essential characteristics.
(1.) Change.
(2.) Coherence.
b. Theme of different narrations.
c. Purpose.
d. Plot.
(1.) Incidents leading up to main incident.
(a.) Setting.
r. Time.
2'. Place.
(2.) Characters.
Use the plot, as worked out, in writing first a reproduction
of one of the narratives studied. After this, work out a
plot of an original story with the whole class and have the
pupils write the story. I,ater let each child write a plot of
an original story and then write his own story.
12. The selection of a brief narration of a high grade,
* The Problem of Elementary Composition, by Elizabeth Spalding, pages 42-43.
142 The Problem of Method.
upon a topic of interest and value, and the examination of
it to discover the laws indicated under 11.
13. The examination of songs in order to stimulate and
to direct effort toward literary production.
14. The selection and examination of letters written b}^
children during the different periods of English and Ameri-
can History. The letters selected should be, in so far as
possible, representative of different classes. They should
pertain largely to home life, and to the relation of child to
parent ; of brother to sister, etc. To some extent they
should relate to society and to the church.*
15. Letter Writing, f
The letters in this stage should relate to affairs of home
and school, and to the simple aspects of society for chil-
dren. They should be written to schoolmates, friends in the
neighborhood, friends in distant regions, parents, brothers
and sisters.
The established forms of letters should be made clear, and
the work should enable the pupil to write a brief letter in-
volving any of the relations above given, according to the
accepted form, legible, correct in paragraphing, language,
punctuation, etc., and obedient to the laws of discourse.
. Stages in the Intermediate Grades.
The First Stage.
The first stage is not one of work in the sense that the
teacher attempts actively to lead the children into the com-
prehension and use of more developed forms of language.
It is that compreheUvSion and use of language resulting from
*See the Diary of Anna Greene Winslow, a Puritan girl, ten years of age. The
diary contains a series of letters written by her whil -^ residing in Boston, to her
parents, then residing in Nova Scotia.
t For additional examples of letters and for helpful suggestions on the pro-
cess of beginning the work in letter writing, see pages 4-5 The Problem of
Elementary Composition, by Elizabeth Spalding,
The Problem of Method. 143
the work of the fourth and of the other preceding years. The
stage is one of fused unit}^ although not so fully so as the
first stage in the primary grades. Knowledge is always
partial. The realm of the unknown is far more extensive.
The clearly known in comparison with the unknown or the
dimly known is always slight. At the conclusion of the
work of the four years the pupil's comprehension and use of
language involves many indistinct aspects. The stage is
one of synthesis, because these aspects are fused into a
unity, and because many distinctions are not noticed.
The Second Stage.
Fifth Grade.
The second stage deals with the discovery of distinctions
which are somewhat more advanced and difficult than those
considered in the third grade. These distinctions are a de-
velopment of the differences studied in the third grade,
and an unfolding of the distinctions not known, or at least
but dimly known, at the conclusion of the work of the
fourth year. Hence this stage is analytic. Among the
distinctions of the stage are the following :
1. The distinction of words as to their current and their
literal meaning.-'^
2. The distinction of words into those that are mere
signs, as hat, on, sit, etc., and those that are onomatopoetic,
as crash, buzz, etc.
8. The difference in such expressions as he, his, him,
who, cvhojii, etc.
4. The difference in the form of the pronoun after the
verb to be and after such verbs as to have, to strike.
5. The difference in the forms of comparison, and their
relative value, as, more dark, darker.
b
The distinction into the current and the literal meanings may be aided by
readings from such works as Waites' Forgotten Meanings.
144 The Problem of Method.
6. The difference in significance of one and two nega-
tives, as (correct form), I kriow noihi^ig of it ; I do not know
7iothi7ig of it (incorrect form).
7. The difference between an indefinite and a definite
subject, and the forms the succeeding pronouns tend to take,
as (correct form), " If HeJiry should carry this package to
the store, he will find, etc.; If any one should carry this
package to the store they will," etc. (incorrect form.)
8. The difference between the single and the double
direct object, and the tendency toward different forms for
the objective, as (correct form), " He asked me to go ; He
asked Mary and /to go (incorrect form.)
9. In the third grade symbolic language was distin-
guished from language used to express the external, and
from language employed to signify mental states. In this
stage further distinctions in symbolic language are to ap-
pear. These distinctions wdll be found under both form
and content. Under form are the figurative expressions
belonging to single words, and those found in sentences.
The figurative expressions in words are brought about by
omission. There may be omission from the first of the
word, from within the word, or from the end of the word.
In * ' The Vision of Sir Launfal ' ' the word ' ga7i is used instead
of began. This is called Aphaeresis. This is also shown in
you'll for you will. The second form is Syncope. This is
shown in the word d er. The third is Apocope. An exam-
ple of this is the use of yoji instead of yo7ider. This is shown
in the * ' Bugle Song. ' ' Another figurative form of words
is that of combining by the use of the hyphen.
In sentences also figures are formed by omission, as in the
Ellipsis. An example of this is. The virtues I admire, in-
stead of, The virtues which I ad7nire. Related to the El-
lipsis is the figure called Asyndeton. This is the omission
of connectives as, The boy, his father, his mother, his sis-
The Problem of Method. 145
ter, are present. Another form is obtained by insertinje;.
The general term for this is Pleonasm, as, " Th}^ rod and
thy staff they comfort me." A subordinate form under this
is Epanalepsis. This is the repetition of an expression
after intervening words or expressions, as, The sun — that
great luminary of light and warmth — the sun began to ap-
pear in its glory. Another subordinate form is Epizeuxis.
This is the repetition of a word or expression immedi-
ately, as, The sun — the sun, the great contributor of light and
warmth begaii to appear. A third subordinate form is termed
Polysyndeton. This is the employment of many connec-
tives, as, The boy, and his father, and his mother, and his sis-
ter, are preseiit. The word or may be used in the same way.
Another figure under the form of sentences is obtained by
substituting one part of speech for another. Among the
examples often used are the following : She ivill queen it ;
He will out- Herod Herod.
Symbolic language deals not only with the form, but also
with the content. Under the content the symbolism is
shown by compariso?i, by association and by co7itrast. Un-
der comparison are the well known figures of Simile, Meta-
phor and Allegory.
It has been held that the work on the simile should at
first be oral and common to the class. In the beginning
there should be the reading of simile after simile and free
conversation concerning each one in order to awaken the
thought that the function of the simile is merely to picture
or illustrate the writer's thought, and that the thought is
the prominent thing. In this discussion it should appear
that similes are to reveal striking likenesses amidst marked
differences. It is thus seen that the enjoyment of similes
rests upon surprise.
The work should then change, and the children should;
14() Thp; Problem of Method.
enter upon the examination of literan^ productions in order
to discover cases of the simile.
By means of these exercises the pupils would be prepared
to construct paragraphs and brief compositions involving
similes. In connection with the Metaphor are the forms
known as Personification and Apostrophe.
The work on personification, as that on the simile, may
be oral and common at first. This will be introductory to
the examination of literary productions for the purpose of
discovering and studying examples of personification. The
mode of work recommended in connection with the simile
and with personification is mentioned in order to indicate
the spirit of work with all figures of thought.
Under association are found the two figures spoken of as
S3aiecdoche and Metonymy. An example under S3mec-
doche is, "Give us this day our daily bread." An example
under Metonymy is, "The pen is mightier than the sword."
The forms of symbolic language under contrast are Anti-
thesis and Climax.*
In these the contrast is clearly expressed. There are in
addition the Epigram, the Interrogation and Irony. In
these the contrast is merely implied.
These various distinctions involve mau}^ strange terms, as
Aphaeresis, Syncope, Polysyndeton, etc. Shall these pupils
(in age about ten years) be made acquainted with such un-
usual terms? The difficulty in the use of new, long, scien^
tific words is not essentially in their pronunciation, but in
the clear knowledge of their content or exact significance.
When the meaning is simple enough to be considered, the
exact scientific terms should be taught. For example, the
idea expressed by the word Polys3mdeton is easy of com-
* 111 connection with the study of the climax, the distinction between it and the
ending may be shown by the examination of selections involving the climax.
(The Problem of Elementary Composition, page 20.)
The Problem of Method. 147
prehension. After the meaning has been worked out the
exact scientific term should be taught and used. To the
pupil there is a distinct pleasure in the mastery of such terms.
These terms have been produced by the race in its process
of development, and they have supplied a distinct need.
To be able to comprehend and to use them is, therefore, an
act on the part of the pupil which identifies him with the
entire race. It has a tendency to make him universal, and
although he does not distinctly know this, he feels it to a
certain extent and experiences pleasure on that account.
The use of the term isosceles triangle identifies the child
and his knowledge with the whole progress of the subject of
Geometry ; and it gives him this sense of the imity with the
universal, much more than does the following expression :
A space inclosed by three lines, two of which are equal.
10. The distinction of a selection, as, the " Bugle Song,"
into —
a. The aim of the author in writing it.
b. The thought used to accomplish the aim.
c. The expression.
d. The adaptation of language to thought, and
thought to purpose.
11. The distinction of the sentence into —
a. The thought to be communicated.
b. The aim of the writer or speaker.
c. The adaptation of the language to accomplish
the aim. This last involves the whole realm of distinc-
tions implied in careful substitutions. For example, the
pupil may be considering the adaptation of the words in
the sentence. The prisoner' s innocence is to be assumed. He
may be led to see by substitution the following : The inno-
cence of the prisoner is to be supposed.
12. The distinction of the direct and the indirect quota-
tion, the expressions appropriate and their relative strength.
148 The Problem of Method.
18. The distinctions found in the successive elements of
the full activit}^ in some form of institutional life, as an act
in the realm of business, of state, etc.
1-4. The distinctions found in the successive elements of
a full activity in nature, as an act in the development of a
plant.
Selections from these and similar distinctions should be
carefully adapted to the development of the pupil and of the
subject.
The Third Stage.
Sixth Grade.
The work in this stage is like that of the fourth grade —
essentially constructive. The work of the fifth grade being
a consideration of distinctions more difficult and more ex-
tensive than those examined in the third grade, the pupil,
in consequence, is now prepared to enter upon a higher grade
of synthetic work.
As was suggested concerning the work of the fourth
grade, the work in this stage is not, and can not be, solely
synthetic. In constructive work necessarily certain distinc-
tions are l)rought into notice ; but practically and mainly
this stage is a synthetic one in which language is viewed in
the process of construction.
The different kinds of work are shown by the following :
1. A careful study of the primary law of discourse —
unity (purpose).
Let this law be carefully illustrated. x\fter this has been
done let one or more selections from discourse be examined
in order to show^ how they exemplify this primary law.
2. A careful study of the secondary laws of discourse —
selection, completeness, order.
Relation to the laws of coherence and proportion.
The Problem of Method. 149
Carefully and fully illustrate each of these laws, and
then examine brief selections from discourse in order to dis-
cover in them the presence of these laws.
H. A careful and systematic stud}' of the nature of the
paragraph and its laws.-'^
a. Examination of paragraphs selected from dis-
course in order to discover the presence of these principles
of the paragraph. Moi^e advanced work in the elaboration
of single sentences into paragraphs as indicated under 8,
page 18i), of the fourth grade work.
4. The construction into a brief, organized discourse of
one or more of the series of separate sentences, indicated in
18 and 14, under the work of the fifth grade. Pupils should
in this work be led to consider :
a. The order of the sentences belonging to the
series.
b. The unity of the sentences. This would involve
the use of a/id, for, because, etc.
c. Elaboration of the different thoughts.
d. Organization into paragraphs.
f). Advanced work in harmony with the suggestions made
under 5 in the work of the fourth grade.
(). The examination of a description of a high grade
somewhat more difficult than that belonging to the fourth
grade to discover in its structure the characteristics men-
tioned under 5 of the work of the fourth grade.
7. The selection of a particular object viewed as chang-
ing, as the formation of the Magna Charta.
a. The study of this activity as to its purpose, time,
cause, effects and parts.
* Study in connection with this work special works upon the paragiaph, such
for example, as Paragraph Writing, by Scott and Denney. published by Allyn &
Bacon, Boston, Mass., and Writing in English, by Maxwell and vSmith, (especially
Chapter IX), published by the American Book Co.
150 The Problem of Method.
b. The stud}' of one of the parts as to purpose, time,
cause and effect.
c. The preparation of a brief narration by the pupil
setting forth the formation of the Magna Charta.
d. An examination of this narration in order to test
it by the laws of discourse.
8. Advanced work in harmony with the suggestions
made under 11 in the work of the foyrth grade.
9. The selection and examination of letters written by
children and by men and women during the different periods
of English and American History. These letters, as those
belonging to the fourth grade, should be selected in so far
as possible, to represent different classes of societ3^ The
letters in these grades, however, should relate largely to the
more complex aspects of societ}^, to business, to the state,
and to the church. The pupils should make a collection of
letters relating to society, business, state and church, from
their parents, from men of business, from government offi-
cials and from church officials. Selections should also be
made from magazines, works on history and on fiction, and
from the dail}^ press.
a. Examine one or more of the selected letters,
testing them by the thought of 5 and 11 of the fourth
grade.
10. Letter Writing.
The letters in this stage should relate chiefly to the more
advanced aspects of society ; to business, to the church and
to the state. Among them, however, should be letters upon
the more simple aspects of society for children ; friendly
letters to schoolmates and to friends in general, both in their
own neighborhood and in distant regions ; letters to parents,
to brothers and to sisters. More careful work than tliat of
the fourth grade should be given to the established forms
of letters. The purpose is to enable the pupil to write a
The Problem of Method. 151
brief letter that is legible, correct in language, in punctua-
tion, and in paragraphing, on an\' of the topics abov^e given,
and in any of the relations.
vSPECIAL DEVICES OR MEANS.
Many special devices have been referrc^d to in this discus-
sion. Several important ones will be mentioned here The
la.st of these — the construction of a series of sentences — will
be given a special explanation, which will bring into view
nian}^ auxiliar}^ devices :
J . The use of the picture for the purposes of description.
2. The use of the picture to illustrate some event in a
story.
8. The preparation of a l)rief outline for a story by the
pupils with the aid of the teacher and the construction of a
story as based upon this outline by the pupils.
4. The preparation of an outline for a story by the pupils
and the construction by tliem of a story based on this out-
line.
5. The construction of a series of sentences expressing
the different events in an activity viewed as returning to its
beginning.
In the appendix examples of the different series of sen-
tences referred to under the fifth kind of work are given.
The action expressed in these sentences is to be found in the
work of nature or in the activities of man. The various
series representing the activities of man are to reveal his
processes in the institutions, that 'i<, in the family, in the
church, in the state, etc. Series of sentences could be con-
structed which would reveal his processes in the arts, as in
architecture, painting, etc. , and in the modes of activity by
which he reveals himself in games and pla3's.
In the series of sentences given in the appendix, none
relate to the field of art or to games or plays. The
152 The Problem of Method.
pupils under the guidance of the teacher, may be led to
grade games and plays according to their adaptation to the
age and development of the pupils, and to construct series of
sentences expressing the activity in typical games and plays.
The various series presented in the appendix and also others
to be constructed should be graded upon certain definite
principles. Among these principles are familiarity, sim-
plicity, and the rise from a high degree of passivity through
the ditTerent stages of advancement to a high degree of ac-
tivity. The different series given as examples are distrib-
uted and graded mainly according to the third principle.
They are subject, however, to a new distribution and grada-
tion in the light of the first and second principles sug-
gested. --^
* The following may be consulted to advantage in the different kinds of work
itidicated above :
1. How to I^earn a lyanguage in Six Months, by \V. T. Stead, (Review of Re-
views, Vol. V, July, 1892.)
2. The Art of Teaching and Stud\-ing I^anguages, by M. Francois Gouin.
3. How to I<earn a I^anguage, by J. S. Blackie. (Review of Reviews, Vol. VI,
August, 1892.)
4. The Mother Tongue, Books I, II and III. (Ginn & Co.)
5. How to lyearn a I^anguage in Six Months. A. Report of Progress, by R. W.
"Waddy, and others. (Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, Nov., 1892.)
6. A Rojal Road to I^earn I^anguages. The Result of Six Months' Experiment
— W. T. Stead's Report Upon the Kxperiment in His Family. (Review of Re-
views, Vol. VII, March, 1S93.)
7. The Acquisition of lyanguage by Children, by M. Taine. (Mind, Vol. II,
April, 1S77.)
8. An Infant's Progress in I^anguage, by F. Pollock. (Mind, Vol. II, July,
1S78.)
9. Thought and language, by G. F. Stout. (Mind, Vol. XVI, Jan., 1891.)
10. The chapter on — I^anguage, Tone and Gesture, Articulation, Relation of
Tone and Gesture to words, Speech— in Mental Evolution in Man, by George J.
Romanes.
I!. I^aiiguage for The Grades, by J. B. Wisely.
12. The Threefold Purpo.se of Primary r,anguage Work, bj' J. B. Wisely. (A
brief article in the Inland Educator, Vol. Ill, Nov., 1896.)
13. Beginning Steps in Compo.sition, by H. C. Peterson. (A. Flanagan, Chi-
cago. )
14. The Problem of Elementary Compo.sition, by Elizabeth Spalding. (D. C.
Heath & Co.)
15. The Teaching of English, by Percival Chubb. (The IMacmillan Co.)
The Problem of Method. 153
CHAPTER VIL
METHOD IN A LESSON.
The material in a lesson is identical in nature with the
material of an entire branch of study. Method in a lesson
is, therefore, characterized by the same essential elements
as method in a brach of study. Each lesson has its domi-
nant idea. This is the organising principle. The subject-
matter in expressing the general nature of the material and
the attrii)ute to be emphasized, indicates the scope. The as-
signment sets forth, substantially, the divisions, subdivisio7is
and their relative importance. The steps reveal the psycho-
logical process of the learner, and the devices correspond to
the same element in the method in the branch of study. In
the method of the lesson, however, these seven aspects of
metliod in a branch of study are treated under subjecr-mat-
ter, assignment, steps, purpose and devices. The psycho-
logical aspect is somewhat more prominent in the method of
the lesson than in the method of a brach of stud3\ There-
fore, the method of tlie lesson is developed from the princi-
ple underlying the process of education.
The metliod in the lesson is, indeed, practically the activity
which is characteristic of education. Education is not
merely knowledge ; it is aspiration, insight, power. That
branch of study which arouses most fully the activity of the
student, is the one that is the most educative to him. This
subject, to some students, is history ; to others, it is mathe-
matics ; and to still others, physical science. Education has
K^ its principle, and the metliod in a lesson is identical with
HKtliis principle. A principle is the e.ssential mode of activ-
I
154 The Problem of Method.
ity in an object or process. The principle in education is
that psychological activity or process in the pupil which is
manifested in every stage of his development.
This central, comprehensive principle of education is best
denoted, perhaps, by the term self-determijiation.
The word determination is not here used to signify a fixed
purpose, although its meaning includes such acts. The ex-
pression '* determination " means limitation, indicating that
when the self is existing in a given particular act a termin-
ation has been put to all other special acts, except in so far
as they are involved in the given particular act, and further-
more, that a permanent limit has been given to the self, in
that a tendency to react the particular act has become a trait
or characteristic.
Why, however, is the principle or mode of activity referred
to as .y<^^-determination ?
In order to imply that the object in the physical or in the
spiritual environment which seems to be the cause of the
particular mental state is merely a stimulus, an excitant.
The self having been stimulated by some object in its en-
vironment, acts upon itself and thus produces a particular
act or state of itself. The self as a distinctive energy or
entity, creates out of its potential condition the special state
of itself.
It is to be noted further that the activity or principle of
self-determination has its process or stages.
1. The self as energy exists as mere capacity, as poten-
tialit}^ This is a condition of fused unity. In a sense, the
mind is "without form and void."
2. The self, aroused by a stimulating object, creates in it-
self a definite, particular activity. The result is separation.
The self in this mental state is different from itself in the
potential stage and also from itself in any other special ac-
tivity.
The Problem of Method. 155
8. The self then becomes negative and brings to an end
its particular activity. The energy involved in the given
activit}' returns, as it were, to the potential condition, with,
however, a definite tendency to react the special activity
which has just been brought to an end, apparently.
The foregoing signifies that the self, in the process of edu-
cation, gradually gives to itself its own definite traits or
characteristics, by producing them out of its native but un-
developed capacity. This principle of education is an-
nounced by Rosenkranz in "Philosophy of Education,"
page 26.
One may make the principle more real to himself, and un-
derstand more fully its universality, by considering thought-
fully " The Rhythm of Motion," in First Principles, by Her-
bert Spencer, pp. 250-271 ; the process in the seed ; in the
amoeba ; in the object expressed by the sentence ; in a drama
or in any other form of fiction.
The second element in the principle of self-determination,
i. e., the special activity, differentiates into :
The process of objectifying or making existent in the
world ideas that are strictly subjective.
The process of rendering subjective objective existences
whether physical or spiritual.
The Objectifying Process. Tlie idea to be objectified may
be that—
Of some object of utility, as the cotton gin, the Brooklyn
bridge, the constitution of the United States.
Of an idealized activit}^, as the spiritual condition ex-
pressed in " The Chambered Nautilus."
Of a form of conduct or behavior.
Of these three, the last has been selected for a brief con-
sideration because of its explicit manifestation of the process
in education.
Behavior always implies a criterion to which one is to con-
156 The Problem of Method.
form. This is the reason tliat any human activity may be-
come moral.
The first stage in behavior is that in which the criterion
seems to be externall}^ imposed, as the regulations of the
home, the rules of school, the Ten Commandments.
The second stage in behavior is that in which the criterion
is subjective only. This is the realm of conscience. If con-
science is irrational obedience to it can not be justified. If
it is univ-ersal it will ultimately become institutional and
thus pass over into the third class of criteria. Paul perse-
cuted the Christians in obedience to his conscience. But his
conscience was irrational, because if made universal in its
application it would have meant that every one was to be
persecuted for his religious belief by ever}' one who did not
believe in the same way. The conscience of the East In-
dian impelled him to bur\^ the living wives with the dead
husband, but the conscience of the British officer commanded
the abolition of the custom. In order to be a true guide the
conscience must be educated and thus made universid.
The third stage in behavior is that in which the criterion
is subjective-objective, thus possessing the form of univer-
sality. The criterion may become subjective-objective in
either of two wa3^s —
1 . By having the one who obeys the criterion a partici-
pant in the creation of it.
2. By having the one who obeys it, study the criterion
until he sees the rational ground for it. In this way he takes
it up into his consciousness and recreates it, as it were. For
example, if the Jews had assembled in convention, and under
free discussion, had formulated and adopted the Ten Com-
mandments as a criterion of conduct, the Ten Command-
ments would have been a subjective-objective criterion pro-
duced in the first way. After the Ten Commandments had
been promulgated they could have been rendered subjective-
The Problem of Method. 157
objective to any individual Jew by having him study the
reason underlying them until he justified them in his own
reason. He would thus have recreated them, and, in a
sense, would have become the producer of them. In these
ways the regulations of the home, the rules of school, the
rules of base ball, lawn tennis, the by-laws of an organiza-
tion, a party platform, the 'customs of society, tlie rules of
business, the creed or discipline of a church, and the laws
of the state become subjective-objective criteria.
These stages of activity constitute the principle of discipline
or gover7ime7it.
The Subjectifying Process. This is the process of knowledge
or of scholarship. It implies that the Infinite consciousness
and the finite consciousness have each passed from the po-
tential condition into the stage of distinction, or the sepa-
rative stage. To exist in this second stage is to objectify.
The Infinite consciousness has objectified itself in suns,
stars, clouds, plants, animals, i. e., in the universe of
nature. The finite consciousness has objectified itself in the
arts, in machinery, in means of communication, in books,
and in all kinds of manufactured objects. Scholarship con-
sists in rendering subjective these two great realms — the
world of nature and the world of man. Each object in
either of these realms is essentially the self. It is the self
objectified. Its essence is the process of the self involved
in the objectification. The essence of the cotton gin is the
process of Kli Whitney's mind in creating it. It is not
alien to him, and hence not to mankind. The self of the
most immature mind is essentially reflected in the cotton gin.
It is the acme of scholarship to possess the tendenc}- to ap-
prehend intelligence, purpose or the process of the self as
the essence of the object. To discover the self in an ob-
ject does not mean that a subjective, introspective ego is ac-
tively present in the object as in the animated bod\'. The
158 The Problem of Method.
meaning is that the rational process of consciousness is re-
flected in the object. The rational process involves essen-
tially a consciousness of limit or defect, idealization of a
new condition lacking the limit, desire for the new condi-
tion, choice of the reality of the new condition, creation of
the new condition. To become aware of the reason for the
web feet in the swan is to discover the self in the object. It
is to comprehend the process of intelligence in the Infinite
consciousness which, through the process of evolution, gave
rise to that structure in the swan.
The process of rendering the objective subjective exhib-
its certain stages. The first, which has least recognition of
the self in the object is Sense- Perception. In every act of
sense-perception there is involved the self as an energy ;
the process in the particular act ; and the object perceived
as present. The sense-perceptiv^e act is one of fusion in that
the object perceived is regarded as entirely different from
the self, there being no recognition that the object is an ob-
jectification of the self ; in that neither the self as an en-
ergy nor the special process in the particular act is in con-
sciousness. In sense -perception the mind is engrossed with
the object as something quite distinct from the self. This
mode of activity is known as Prese7itatio7i.
Its first stage is Sensation. This is the process of becom-
ing aware of the entire environment as an indistinct whole.
In the form of successive and simultaneous sensations the
mind responds to the various characteristics of the present
objects. All sensations with their corresponding attributes
are given slight attention, but there is no special emphasis
or selection.
In sensation the mind is rather under the domination of
the external world, although each sensation is a manifesta-
tion of self-activity, in that the self created it out of itself.
It is not received.
Thp: Problem of Method. 159
The second stage is Perception. In perception the mind
withdraws its slight attention from all attributes or objects
being sensed except one. It concentrates its energy upon
this one object, dwelling upon it until it has created a
distinct image of the object. The self projects this image.
That is, it interprets the image to signify the object as
present.
The third stage in presentation is Apperception. Percep-
tion is separative. It distinguishes the object from the
fused environment and the special act of perception from
the condition of the self in sensing.
Apperception, is however, a unifying procCvSs. It unifies
the present image of the present object with kindred ideas
or tendencies which are already elements or constituents of
the organized self. The present image may be that signi-
fying a present white grape, (the first one known.) In ap-
perception this idea is identified with and differentiated from
already existing ideas of grapes and of other fruits. This
process gives organization to newly created knowledge.
Tlie process of subjectifying has as its second stage Rep-
resentation. This is more nearly a recognition of the self in
the object because, the object being absent, the mind tends
to consider itself as the producer of the image of the object.
The object is still regarded as distinct from the self. There
is no consciousness that the process of the self is the essence
of the real object. There is, however, a knowledge of a
certain degree of identity. The image, which constitutes
one element of the self, is known to be a psychical recrea-
tion of the object. Thus a kind of superficial identity is
felt.
Tlie mechanical stage of Representation is Memory. It is
spontaneous, voluntar}- or S3'Steniatic.
Spontaneous memory exhibits the potential stage of con-
160 The Problem of Method.
sciousness. The elements in the process are fused or indis-
tinct, and there is no contradiction in the self.
Voluntary memory manifests the second or separative
stage of consciousness. It involves a contradiction in the
self in that there is an effort to direct and stimulate the spon-
taneous activities. The mind discovers that, at the time, it
is unable to act in the direction desired. There is thus, divi-
sion in the self.
Systematic memory is a remembering which involves both
the voluntary and the spontaneous process. This form of
remembering includes all that is signified by the term mne-
monics from its superficial to its rational aspects. The self
always has a mnemonic system of its own and the value of
this system depends on the degree of culture. Systematic
memory is a remembering planned before hand in order to
enable the self to react voluntarily the beginning element in
the process. This then stimulates the spontaneous process.
A higher form of Representation is Imagmation . The
freedom of the self begins to appear distincth' in imagina-
tion. Not only does the mind recognize itself as the pro-
ducer of the image, but it also discovers that to a degree it
recreates in a new form the object itself.
The imagination is mechanical in constructing absent ob-
jects, events, and scenes, under the stimulus of words, draw-
ings, pictures, etc. This first stage of imagination is some-
what potential.
A second stage is separative. This is the process by which
the mind, during the contemplation of an object, imagines
it under new conditions of time or space.
The imagination is also creative or poetic. This ma}^ be
illustrated by reference to language.
In the very early stages the child uses the same word for
two different objects, not knowing that the objects are dif-
ferent. Since the impression is the same as that previously
The Problem of Method. 161
experienced, he assumes the object to be the same. Thus
if the child calls the moon a lamp, his language is not fig-
urative. He assumes it to be a lamp, since the impression
is similar to that experienced when looking at a lamp. In
the same way a little child calls any man father.
A second stage in language is that in which the metaphor
is created. There is, first, the existence of a dim concep-
tion, as of something that is protective. This is then dif-
ferentiated into two clear conceptions, as for example, into
the idea of the advantage and protection belonging to one if
the spirit is characterized by a godly disposition, and on the
other hand, into the idea of a shield as protecting the body.
The third notion is that of the identity of the two concep-
tions. This is expressed in the form of the metaphor, as
"God is a shield."
The next stage in the development of language is that
which gives rise to the simile. Here the discrimination is
greater than in the metaphor. The two objects are seen
clearly to be different and yet an identity is discovered. The
expression is, " God is like a shield."
The fourth stage in the development of language is one
that gives rise to prose. In this case there is no considera-
tion of two objects, but merely of an object and its attribute,
as ' ' God protects. ' '
In general the creative imagination is that form of men-
tal activity in which a spiritual condition is exhibited in
terms of the physical.
Under Representation there is a third stage involving both
memory and imagination. It is a mode of consciousness in
which the transition to thought is made. It involves the
consideration of language or signs in general. The best
term for this mental process is hiterpretatlon. Interpreta-
tion, however, indicates one-half only of the language
process, i. e., that process in which —
Language already existing is observed,
162 The Problem of Method.
The content or meaning is remembered, imagined or
conceived and
The language is judged to signify the content.
The other process in language is creative. It is as fol-
lows :
The mind constructs an idea.
It imagines or remembers language adapted to this idea.
It judges this language to signify the idea.
The third and most important stage in the process of sub-
jectifying is Thought. Thought is that mode of activity in
which the self discovers its own process to be the essence of
the object. In the process of thought the mind becomes
aware of its essential identity with the object. Although it
is not obvious, nevertheless any process of answering the
question * ' Why ? " is a process of discerning the intelligence
manifested in the object. If one by study answers the ques-
tion — "Why has the orange a rind?" he puts forth the
process of finding the process of self in the orange. That
is, he becomes conscious of intelligence in the structure of
the orange. In thinking, the mind has its own process as
its object, although its object seems to be something else.
To become conscious of the reason for the stopper in an
ink bottle is to comprehend the intelligence in the stopper,
the significance of it. The stopper is an object of meaning.
This is to say that it is the objectification of a volitional
process. Before the existence of the stopper a conscious
process substantially as follows occurred :
1. A person became aware that the ink in the receptacle
with no covering evaporated too rapidly, received too much
dust and was liable to be lost through the overturning of the
receptacle.
2. He idealized or imagined a condition in which these
things could not occur.
3. He experienced some degree of mingled pain and
The Problem of Method. 163
pleasure on account of the consciousness of the contrasted
conditions.
4. He desired the idealized condition.
5. He chose to produce it.
6. He thought out the process of producing it ; that is,
he constructed the notion of the stopper and of the process
of creating it.
7. His purpose and intelligence having given freedom to
the appropriate impulses he put forth the series of actions
necessary to produce the stopper.
8. He judged and accepted the result.
In this sense the stopper is an objectification of the process
of the self. When the stopper is sense-perceived, remem-
bered or imagined, this process is not known. To think the
stopper, however, is to obtain a notion of the process of
mind which is its essence. Thought discovers the intelli-
gence under the object. In the process of thought the self
faces its own process and identifies the process with itself.
There are degrees in the clearness with which this is done.
The first and lowest stage of thought is called Understand-
hig. This is the dim knowing of the process of the self as
the essence of the object. It is an indistinct consciousness
of intelligence or meaning as the reality of the object. The
peculiarity is that it fails to realize that the object has with-
in it a process or energy which creates and organizes it. To
the understanding, the object is organized from without ;
the distinctions of the object are externally imposed. They
do not, to the understanding, arise from a generic force
within the object.
Still the process of understanding is a process of thinkings
because there is some consciousness of the ego as the essence
of the thing understood.
Understanding is marked by three stages.
164 The PROBT.EM OF Method.
The first stage is Appreheyision. In this stage the mean-
ing is grasped in a fused or indistinct way.
Apprehension is rather a feeling of meaning. This is in-
dicated by the popular use of the word.
The second stage is that of Distinction. This stage is
separation. In it the mind analyzes or isolates in order to
remove the indistinctness of apprehension. The procCvSses in
distinguishing are abstracting, discrimiyiating and comparing.
Comparing is a separating or distinguishing which has an
element of unity in it. It is therefore the basis and the
transition to Classification.
Classification is the third stage of the process of under-
standing. It also has subordinate stages within it.
The first is identifying. In this act the mind unifies the
object with a class on the basis of some external attribute.
This act is sometimes termed generalizing because it indicates
a somewhat superficial consideration. The word generaliz-
ing is, however, usually restricted to the act of discovering
a general truth in the inductive process.
The second is separating the object into cause and effect.
This unifies it wnth two classes — causes and effects.
The third is unifying the object with its own inner law or
organizing energy. This process is the discover}^ of the
structural principle of the object, but the mind as under-
standing becomes aware of it merely as a passive attribute,
and not as a genetic, inner force giving rise to all the dis-
tinctions in the object.
The second stage of thought is sometimes termed Ratiocin-
ation. It is the distinguishing process of the mind as a think-
ing activity. It is the separative stage growing out of the
stage of fusion or potentiality represented by Ujiderstand-
ing. This stage of thought differs from the previous stage
in that the energy producing the object and its details is re-
garded as within the object. In Ratiocination, the activity
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 165
giving rise to the distinctions in the object is regarded as
genetic.
Its first stage is Coficeiving.
In its beginning in any given case, conceiving is a contin-
uation of the highest stage of classifying. The organizing
attribute of the object, which in classification is regarded
as merely common to all aspects of the object, is, in concep-
tion, discovered to be genetic.
In the second stage of conceiving the mind attends to the
particulars or distinctions produced by the creative activity.
The third stage of conceiving is one in which the self be-
comes aware indistinctly that each particular is genetic.
The energy of the object is now observed to be creative of
all the distinctions in the object. The universal and the
particular are, in this stage of conception, identified.
The second stage of Ratiocination, ndiUiQiy Judgi7tg, is the
mind's process of apprehending indistinctly the particular,
i. e. , the object ; of isolating and knowing clearly the univer-
sal, i. e., the isolated attribute ; of ceasing to regard the at-
tribute as isolated and noting distinctly its tmity with the
other aspects of the object. In judging, although the ob-
ject and the isolated attribute are unified, they are held as
distinct also. The object, in the judgment, is that w^hich
is included in the class characterized by the isolated attribute.
The isolated attribute in the judgment is predicated of the ob-
ject. Each is thus subordinated. In this they are alike.
Each subsumes the other. In this also they are alike. In
the judgment this identity is implicitly known. The prom-
inent thing in the judgment is the difference of the object
and the attribute. The identity is not on an equality with
the other elements — object and attribute. The development
of the judgment is toward a closer identity of object and at-
tribute. In this development there are three stages, which
reflect the process of consciousness.
166 The Problem of Method.
In the first stage the judgment is immediate.' The iden-
tity is fused, indistinct. The object and the attribute are
held apart as distinct entities. Each is being or existence.
The copula also expresses existence only. In this first form
of judgment the immediately existent only is known, as,
This triangle is right-angled.
In the second stage the judgment is conditio7ial. The im-
mediately existent is now seen to depend on another exist-
ence. That is, it is known to be not immediate. This is
the separative stage of judgment. It expresses doubt or
contingency. An example is, This triangle is right-angled
if two of its sides are perpendicular to each other.
In the third stage the judgment is definitive. The defini-
tive judgment discovers the essence of the object. An ex-
ample is, The right-angled triangle is a space enclosed by three
lines, two of which are sides of a right angle. This implies
the three-fold process of consciousness. Contingency or
negation are indicated as cancelled. The immediate judg-
ment hints the first stage of consciousness or potentiality.
The conditional judgment hints the second stage of con-
sciousness or separation. The definitive judgment hints all
three. The essential identity of object and attribute has
now been discovered. The object, the isolated attribute and
the identity reveal the total process of the self. The con-
sciousness of the identity is, however, somewhat implicit.
The object when undifferentiated as expressed by the
word snozv in " Snow is cold," is representative of the poten-
tial condition of the self. The isolated attribute, as ex-
pressed by the word cold is a manifestation of the second or
separative movement of consciousness. The relation of
identity as expressed by the word is hints the third stage in
the mind' s process — the stage of its return into itself with
an acquired tendency. It indicates the mind's return to
unity after separation, or its tendency to discover identity
The Problem of Method. 167
in elements it has regarded as distinct in its second stage.
The sentence, as the expression of the judgment, is quite a
distinct objectification of the three stRges in the process of
the mind.
In the sentence "The glistening snow is cold," the ob-
ject expressed by the subject of the sentence indicates the
potential or indistinct aspect of the self in so far as the word
snozv is the expression, but the use of the words the and
glistening signify that the process of isolating an attribute
and of unifying has occurred at least twice with the object
snow. The whole sentence shows that this process is also
occurring at the time indicated by the sentence. The object
being thought of is differentiated in a double sense as a re-
sult of the two former cases of identifying. In the sentence,
" The snow, which is glistening, is cold," the process of the
mind is exhibited in the idea of the object expressed by
" The snow which is glistening ; " in the idea of the attri-
bute expressed by the word ''cold," and in the idea of
identity expressed by the word " is."
The use of the word ' ' The ' ' and of the clause ' * which is
glistening " as the expression of a modifying attribute indi-
cates two former acts of mind manifesting in each case an
act of judgment. The clause, expressing the unity of the
object denoted by "which" and the attribute signified by
the word " glistening " reveals a present case of separating
and unifying. The compound sentence is a form of language
which exhibits at least two such acts of identification based
upon discrimination.
In a sense much more complete than here indicated, the
essential process of the mind objectifies itself in the forms
and elements of the sentence.
The identity expressed by the copula is, however, not fully
enough diiferentiated in the judgment.
Reasoning, the third stage of Ratiocination, renders ex-
168 The.Problem of Method.
plicit the development of the identity expressed by the
copula
One reason that students have difficulty in comprehend-
ing the process of judging and of reasoning is that their first
approach to each of these processes is usually logical rather
than psychological. In regard to the judgment it is often
said that consciousness being possessed of two ideas, one
universal and the other particular, identifies them or dis-
criminates them, thus producing the judgment or proposi-
tion. This is a mechanical explanation and removes judg-
ment from the realm of actual psychological processes of dis-
covering truth in actual objects. Judging begins in the con-
struction of the idea of a single object whether general or
particular. In the examination of this object the self abstracts
or isolates an attribute (or the absence of the attribute)
and then identifies it with the object. In the first case the
sentence would express identity. In the second the direct
expression is that of non-identitj% although in reality the
judgment is always the divScovery of identity. The judg-
ment thus expressed is called a proposition.
Reasoning has often received the same mechanical ex-
planation as that referred to concerning the judgment. Rea-
soning is said to be a connection of propositions. One who
reasons is supposed to have in consciousness two propo-
sitions, and to deduce from these a third proposition. This
explanation is based upon the notions of formal logic and
not upon the nature of the psychological process of reason-
ing. The logical process is a generalization based upon the
psychological process. In the psychological process of rea-
soning the mind is concerned with a single object and is
making a real examination of it in order to discover some
fact concerning it — a fact not immediately accessible. The
first process is that of judging. That is, the mind constructs
the idea of the object as a whole ; then, as a result of con-
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 169
tinned contemplation of the object, it abstracts or isolates an
attribute, and then identifies this attribute with the object
and its class, or with the object through its class. The self
does not, however, have in consciousness a judgment con-
cerning the object and a judgment relating to the class and
then deduce a third judgment termed the conclusion. The
truth it discovers as to the class belongs to the process of
reacting similar past experience common to all processes of
knowing. There is no attention to a class until the neces-
sity for its consideration arises in the direct examination of
the object. It is a great aid in obtaining a knowledge of rea-
soning to note that the mind al\va3'S spontaneously regards
each object old or new as one of a class. The reason for
this is that each object of its entire past experience has been
found to belong to a class. In reasoning there occurs a
judgment, and then the process of discovering the ground
for the identity. There are three stages in this process.
The first is termed Identification. In identification the
mind apprehends indistinctly the relation to the class which
is the ground for asserting identity. This indistinctness is
the basis of the inaccurac}^ so frequent in this stage. Rea-
soning always involves the particular, the general or class
and the universal. The mind in identifying unifies the par-
ticular with the class because it has discovered in the par-
ticular an attribute (the universal) which it is aware belongs
to the class. This attribute may, however, belong to an-
other class, and may thus give rise to an incorrect conclu-
sion, somewhat as follows: In examining a word, as red,
the characteristic expressi7ig an attribute may be isolated and
then identified with the word. This completes the judg-
ment. Based upon past experience, the characteristic — ex-
pressing an attribtite — may be identified with the class, attrib-
utive verbs. The word red may then be identified with the
class attributive verbs. The defect in the process is lack
170 The Problem of Method.
of distinction or differentiation in knowing fully the isolated
attribute. The characteristic which has been abstracted has
three elements, but one only is noticed in the given case.
The elements are (1) expressing an attribute, (2) of an ob-
ject, (3) without asserting it.
The psychological process is —
1. Becoming conscious of the word red as a whole.
2. Isolating the characteristic expressiiig an attribute of
an object without asserting it; but observing only the ele-
ment, expressing a7i attribute.
3. Unifying the isolated attribute with the object (the
word red).
4. Identifying the isolated attribute with the class, at-
tributive verbs.
5. Identifying the word 7'ed and the class attributive
verbs on the ground of their unity in expressing an attribute.
The syllogism in the logical process is —
1. The word red expresses an attribute.
2. Attributive verbs express attributes.
8. The word red is an attributive verb.
It is to be noticed that the middle term is the universal,
and that it is expressed in the predicate of the major and of
the minor premise.
This stage of reasoning is that of fused unity. It resem-
bles the potential stage in the mind's activity.
The second stage in reasoning is known as Induction. It
is the separative aspect of reasoning. It is the stage of dis-
tinction, although the final result is synthesis. The char-
acteristic element in induction is the isolating or discover-
ing of the distinguishing attribute of the class. Therefore,
the result is both synthetic and analytic. The objects of
the class are unified on the basis of the central attribute and
the class is separated from the other classes on the same
basis.
The Problem of Method. 171
In induction there is always a particular object to be in-
vestigated. I^et it be assumed that the object is the word
red as found in the sentence " This leaf is red," and that it
is the first lesson in thinking the nature of the adjective.
It is also to be assumed that the pupil does not know the
name of the class or that there is a class. While it is not a
new word, it is practically new so far as its definite meaning
is concerned. Many objects exist thus to the pupil, and
even to the mature scholar.
The psychological process in induction with the word redQ.s
its object is : The pupil's mind (1) attends to the word as a
whole, (2) abstracts the characteristic expressing an attri-
bute of an object without asserting it, (3) judges or rather as-
sumes the object to belong to a class, (4) gives considera-
tion to (abstracts) the creative activity which produced the
words of the class, (5) judges it to be uniform in its process,
(6) infers that all the words of the class possess this character-
istic — expressing an attribute of an object ivithout asserting it.
This is essentiall}^ the mind's process in inductive reason-
ing, and as a mere process is as clearly revealed with one ob-
ject as it would be with many. In order, however, to insure
validity to the result, there must be an investigation of
many objects.
The syllogism of the logical process is —
1. The creative activity of a class is uniform in its process.
2. The creative activity produced this object (the word
red^ with the characteristic; — expressi^ig an attribute of an
object without asserting it.
3. All objects of the class possess that characteristic.
This equips the mind of the pupil with a general principle,
called in logic the major premise.
It is to be noted that the attribute abstracted in (2) above
is actually found to be present. It is also to be observed that
the subjects in the first and second propositions are the same,
172 Thk Problem of Method.
while in the identification the predicates were the same. In-
duction begins b}^ discovering an attribute in a single object
and ends by asserting that attribute of the whole class.
The third stage in reasoning is Deduction. It resembles
the third stage in the process of consciousness. It is syn-
thetic in that it unifies an attribute with a single object,
but the result is to distinguish the object. That is, it ter-
minates in analysis or separation.
The psychological process in deduction is as follows:
1. The learner attends to some object as a whole, as,
to the word red in the sentence — '* The red sandstone is ex-
pensive. ' '
2. He inquires whether the word red limits the appli-
cation of the word saiidstojie or whether it merely empha-
sizes an attribute belonging to the object named by that
word. This is the act of abstracting the attribute limiting
and inquiring whether the word red possesses it in this
special case. The second step in deduction is always, sub-
stantially, of this form.
3. He then classes the word red on the basis of an at-
tribute which is different from the one inquired for. This
second attribute is one that is observed to be present. In
this case the characteristic on the basis of which the word is
classed is expressing a quality (color) which is variously maii-
ifested by the object denoted by the substantive.
4. He then analyzes the class. In this analysis the class
is found to consist of words which express an attribute of an
object ; the attribute is found to be one which appears in
various forms in the object ; the word is seen to express one
form of the attribute only and therefore to limit.
5. He knows that the words of the class limit, because
his analysis has shown limiting to be one of the characteris-
tics of the class.
6. He infers that the word red limits the application of
The Problem of Method. 178
the word sa7idsto7ie, because it was found to belong to the
class, as indicated in 3, page 172.
The syllogism of the logical process is —
1. All adjectives expressing attributes belonging to only
a part of a class are limiting.
2. The word red is an adjective, expressing an attribute
belonging to only a part of the objects expressed by the word
sajidstone^
3. The word red possesses the attribute of limiting the
application of the word sandstoiie in the sentence — " The red
sandstone is expensive."
It is to be noted that the attribute isolated in 2 is not
directly known to be present as is always the case in induc-
tion. In deduction the attribute isolated, i. e. thought of, is
not directly accessible. The mind gives attention to the at-
tribute and inquires whether it is possessed by the object.
Sometimes the person in the process of deduction centers at-
tention upon the fact that the object has a cause, a use, an
effect, a relation of likeness or difference, and inquires, not
whether it has the function, etc., but ivhat the function or
relation is.
It is to be further noticed that the subject of the major
premise is the predicate of the minor premise. While the
truth discovered in induction is based on uniformity in the
creative process and is given a general application, the truth
discovered in deduction is based on the uniformity of the
essential class attributes produced by the creative activitj^
and is given a particular application. This indicates that
there is no ''inductive method." Induction is only one
stage of a process. Deduction is the other. Induction, be-
ginning with a single object, discovers a general truth. De-
duction, beginning with the general truth, discovers that the
general truth belongs to a certain particular object. The
growth of knowledge is not * ' from the particular to the gen-
174 The Problem of Method.
eral " but from the particular, through the general to a par-
ticular, which is enriched to the mind by the discovery that
it (the particular) possesses the general.
The special stages in the process of subjectifying or know-
ing are :
I. Presentation.
1. Sense- perception.
a. Sensing.
b. Perceiving.
c. Apperceiving.
II. Rep7esentation.
1. Memory.
a. Recreating the image of the absent object.
b. Reacting similar past experience.
c. Comparing and contrasting the reacted image
with the similar past experience.
d. Inferring that the reacted image means a partic-
ular once present but now absent.
2. Imagination.
a. Constructive.
(1). Creating the image of an object never ob-
served. (Described or pictured.)
(2). Reacting similar past experience.
(3). Comparing and contrasting the created im-
age with the past experience.
(4). Inferring that the created image signifies
an object not now being experienced and not at any time
experienced.
b. Differentiating.
(1). Imaging an object as it exists.
(2). Reconstructing this image so as to adjust it
to the same object under different conditions ; that is, the
object may be thought of as larger, as having a different
color, as possessing a different arrangement of parts, etc.
The Problem of Method. 175
(3). Relating this reconstructed image to past
experience.
(4). Inferring that the image signifies an object
not being experienced and not having been experienced,
c. Creative.
(1). Imaging an object or process, as the physi-
cal echo mentioned in Tennyson's Bugle Song.
(2). Idealizing a spiritual object, as, a human
deed.
(3) . Conceiving the two as symbol and thing sig-
nified.
3. The Language Activity.
This is a mode of mental activity concerned with sym-
bols, i. e., letters, words, sentences, etc. In one aspect it
is partially an objectifying activity. It is a complex activ-
ity involving sometimes sense-perceiving, remembering,
judging, imagining. Sometimes it contains conceiving and
reasoning. Its content or object of consideration is lan-
guage. The act has been termed Memorization. This
term is somevvliat objectionable, however, because it sug-
gests the activity of memorizing which is quite a different
activity from that referred to as memorization or the lan-
guage activity. The general nature of the language activ-
ity is explained in Psychology , by Dewey, pp. 211-212. The
language activity exhibits two main forms :
a. The creation or learning of new terms.
(1). Conceiving. This involves sense-perceiv-
ing, remembering or imagining a particular object, and
the analysis of it ; the same activities upon other objects ;
comparison, generalization, i. e., the discovery of the com-
mon element.
(2). Sense-perceiving, i. e., the imaging of the
term.
176 The Problem of Method.
(3). Judging that the term is a symbol for the
meaning.
b. The interpreting of language.
(1). Sense-perceiving the term.
(2). Remembering the meaning in such expres-
sions as, ''He opened the door," or idealizing it, in such
expressions as " I am the door. ' '
(3). Judging that the term is a symbol of the
meaning.
III. Thought.
1. Understanding.
a. Apprehending.
b. Distinguishing.
(1). Abstracting.
(2). Discriminating.
(3). Comparing.
c. Classifying.
(1). Identifying, i. e., classifying the object on
an external or non-essential attribute.
(2). Analyzing the single object into cause and
effect, i. e., distinguishing it into an object which has been
caused and into an object which is capable of producing an
effect.
(3). Organizing the object by thinking of all its
attributes'^^ jparts as manifesting the central or structural
idea. Since, however, this is the stage of the understand-
ing, the energy signified by this idea exists to the mind as
passive. It is not yet comprehended as generic, i. e., as
giving rise to the object and all of its phenomena.
2. Ratiocination,
a. Conceiving.
(1). Apprehending the central characteristic or
energy.
The ProbIvEm of Method. 177
(2). Analyzing the object into its particulars.
(3). Judging each particular to be a manifesta-
tion of the central attribute or energy, discovering thus the
structural nature of the object.
b. Judging — Constructing,
(1). An immediate judgment, a judgment of mere
being or existence, seeming to involve no condition.
(2). A conditional judgment.
(3). A definitive judgment.
c. Reasoning.
(1). Identifying.
(a). Attending to the object as a whole. (Sense-
perceiving, remembering, imagining.)
(b). Abstracting an attribute.
(c). Identifying the attribute with a certain
class.
(d). Identifying the object with that class.
(2). Inductive reasoning.
(a). Attending to the object as a whole. (Sense-
perceiving, remembering or imagining. )
(b). Abstracting an attribute which is present.
(c). Judging the object to be one of a class.
(d). Remembering that the creative activity
which produces a class is, in general, uniform in its process.
(e). Inferring that the abstracted attribute be-
longs to all objects of a class.
(3). Deductive reasoning.
(a). Attending to the object as a whole. (Sense-
perceiving, remembering or imagining. )
(b). Abstracting an attribute not known to be
present and not accessible and inquiring what it is or whether
it is present.
(c). Classing the object on another attribute,
observed to be present.
178 The Probi^em of Method.
(d). Analyzing the class including the distin-
guishing of the essential attributes.
(e). Judging the inquired-for attribute to be
one of the essential attributes. (The judgment may be neg-
ative. )
(f). Inferring that the particular object pos-
sesses the inquired-for attribute. (The inference ma}^ be
negative.)
These activities as here expressed are the mental activity
2iS process or form merely. They do not indicate the content
or meanijig. That is, there is no reference to the object
known, which is always a limitation of the general process
or form, rendering it definite. When expressed as steps in
an organized lesson these mental activities are given so as
to indicate their true nature as both general and specific.
In the first paragraph of his treatment of Conception,
Psychology, page 204, Dr. Dewey distinguishes between the
image or particular mental act and its function. He indi-
cates that perception does not differ from conception on ac-
count of the difference in the particular image, but rather
on account of a difference in the fiuiction or meanhig which
the image has. It may be of advantage to show this dis-
tinction through the series of intellectual activities.
Presentation.
Sense-perception — An act in which the mind constructs a
particular image or state, and then interprets it to mean a
present particular object.
Represen ta tio?i .
Memory — An act in which the mind re-creates a particu-
lar mental state or image, and then interprets it to mean a
particular object once present but not present now.
Imagination-yAn act in which the mind creates a partic-
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 179
ular image, and then interprets it to mean a particular ob-
ject not present now and at no time present.
Thought.
Understanding.
Apprehending — The mind's act of creating a particular
image and then intepreting it, indistinctly, to signify the
meaning of the object.
Distinguishing.
Abstracting — The mind's act of creating a particular
mental stage or image, and then interpreting it to mean an
isolated element in the meaning of the object.
Discriminating — The mind's act of creating a particu-
lar mental state or image, and then interpreting the image
to mean the difference of the two or more objects being
contemplated, notwithstanding their unity in a single men-
tal activity.
Comparing — The mind's act of constructing a par-
ticular mental state or image, and then interpreting the
image to mean the unit}' of the two or more objects discrim-
inated in regard to some selected common attribute.
Classifying.
Generalizing — The mind's act of creating a particular
image, and then interpreting it to mean the unity of the object
with the class.
Analyzing the object into cause and effect — The
mind's act of creating a particular state or image, and then
interpreting it to mean the object as distinguished into cause
and effect.
Discovering the structural idea of an object — The
mind's act of creating a particular mental state or image,
and then interpreting this image to mean the activity or
idea revealed in each aspect of the object.
180 The Probi^em of Method.
Ratiocination.
Conceiving — The mind's act of creating a particular
mental state or image, and then interpreting this image to
signify the universal creative activity underlying the given
object and all others of its class, and also the essential dif-
ferentiations manifested by the creative activity.
Judging — The mind's act of creating a particular state
or image, and then interpreting the image to signify the re-
lation existing between an isolated attribute and the re-,
mainder of the object from which the attribute has been
isolated.
Reasoning.
Identifying — The mind's act of creating a particu-
lar mental state or image, and then interpreting the image to
mean that the object being known belongs to a class on
the basis of an attribute pertaining not only to that class,
but to other classes.
Inductive reasoning — The mind's act of creating a
particular image, and then interpreting the image to signify
that the attribute isolated from an object, or a number of
objects, belongs to all the objects of the class.
Deductive reasoning — The mind' s act of creating a
particular image, and then interpreting the image to signify
that a certain general characteristic known to belong to the
class in which this object is found is in identity with the ob-
ject.*
THE LESSON.
A true lesson is an art product, because is has a predom-
inant activity (the Universal) and objective elements which
adequately exhibit, or stimulate and guide that activity (the
Particular).
*The outline of psychological activities on pp. 174-178 has been directly sug-
gested by the treatment of the intellectual processes in Psychology and the Psycho
sis, by Denton J. Snider, Sigma Publishing Co,, 210 Pine St., St. L,ouis.
The ProbIvKm of Method. 181
The Lniversal. The predominant activity or universal is
in the pupil's mind. It is the essential process of his mind
in learning, that is, in rendering an object subjective or
known. Let it be assumed that the object to be learned is
the UvSe of the word i7i when the environment is physical.
The mental process in the child is as follows :
1. He experiences a feeling of limit.
2. He then apprehends indistinctly the object as a whole.
8. As he does this he imagijies himself as understand-
ing the use of the word in.
4. On account of the cohciousness of the two diverse
selves (the real and the potential) he experiences feelings
of dissatisfaction aiid satisfactioji.
5. He desires the potential or ideal self.
6. He gradually changes this desire into purpose.
7. In order to accomplish this purpose, he analyzes the
object which was indistinctly apprehended in the second
stage into its elements or distinctions. In this process of
discovering the distiyictions there is a knowledge of an ob-
ject, an environment and the relation expressed by the
word i7i ; of the object as differentiating into (1) the object
itself, as " Sand in a boat," (2) the object possessing unity
with an attribute of place, as " Sand is in the boat," (3) the
object possessing an attribute of action, as " Sand is settling
in the boat ; ' ' there is also a knowledge of the environment
as not being produced by the object, by the attribute of
being, or by the action.
8. He then reconsiders the various distinctions in order
to discover the predominant distinction. This is continued
until the characteristic element is know7i.
9. He concludes by judging the other elements as to
their relation to this central element.
This mental process indicated as exhibiting itself in a series
of successive stages is the 2C7iiversal in a lesson because it is
182 The Problem of Method.
the form of consciousness to be awakened in any case of
learning. It is not really a nine-fold process, but rather a
detailed analysis of the three stages in the fundamental pro-
cess of consciousness. The activities 1 to 6 inclusive consti-
tute the stage of apprehending the object as a whole indis-
tinctly. This indistinct stage is specially indicated in 2.
The second or separative stage is represented in 7, while 8
and 9 constitute the third stage — that of re-unifying.
In school work it is seldom that the activities 1 to 6 re-
quire direct stimulation. The process in a lesson usually
involves 2 slightly, 7 distinctly and with considerable con-
tinuity, and 8 and 9 in the form of organization or re-uni-
fying.
The process noted in 7 may require a series of lessons.
In that case each distinction becomes a whole in itself and
stimulates the universal process. The elements of the pro-
cess involved in 8 and in 9 are more brief but more difficult.
They are not infrequently neglected, and as a rule, even
when stimulated, they are inaccurate and incomplete.
The Particular. A lesson, as a work of art, requires, how-
ever, not merely a universal, but also a particular aspect
which adequately exhibits or stimulates and guides the uni-
versal. This particular consists of
1. The subject-matter or the material acted upon. It is
the exercise -ground for the learning mind.
2. The acts of the teacher. These are to be considered
in a comprehensive sense as including bearing, assignment,
questions, explanation, encouragement, etc.
3. The acts of the pupil. These are replies, explana-
tions, questions, etc. They reveal to the teacher the condi-
tion of the universal process. They also increase the pupil's
knowledge of the object.
4. Analogous environment. The environment referred
to as a stimulant to the universal process is analogous to
The Problem of Method. 183
both the subject-matter and the universal process. If, for
example, the subject matter is the Embarkation for Troy,
pictures of Greek ships, of the gods and goddesses, the walls
of Troy, etc. , would constitute an analogous environment.
THE ESSENTIAI, ElvEMENTS IN A I^ESSON.
The subject-matter. This constitutes the first of the five
essential elements in an organized lesson. In its definite
form the subject-matter is a direct result of the principle or
process of self-determination in the form of knowing. The
subject-matter must be expressed so as to indicate both the
general and special aspects. The general indicates the ma-
terial and the special expresses the particular attribute to
be emphasized in the given lesson.
It may be of advantage to the student to indicate the sub-
ject-matter in the material expressed in the following as-
signment for a lesson based on an extract from The Hia-
watha Primer : (The class considering the extract belonged
to the third grade in a rural school. )
Draw one line under the word in every sentence used to
express what is being talked about.
The cradle was safely bound.
Nokomis bound it with sinews of the reindeer.
Hiawatha rocked in his cradle.
He was in the wigwam of his grandmother.
It was dark and he was fretful.
Nokomis stilled his fretful wail.
She was singing of the forest.
.She said the bear lived there.
She called him the Naked Bear.
Nokomis rocked the cradle of Hiawatha, saying —
" Hush ! the bear will hear thee !
Hush ! the Naked Bear will hear thee ! "
The Assignme?it. — The statement of the subject-matter
usually awakens the thought of one differentation only. The
184 Thk PROBI.EM OF Method.
assignment leads to the thought of more than one distinc-
tion. Hence, in constructing the assignment, the teacher
is differentiating the subject-matter more fully than in the
process of discovering the general and the particular.
The difference between the subject-matter and the assign-
ment may be shown by examples :
In history —
I. Subject-7natter. The actual growth of the spiritual
attitude of the American people as revealed by the events
concerning slavery during Jackson's administration.
II. Assignment. —
1. The condition of the public mind concerning slav-
ery just prior to Jackson's administration.
2. The slavery problem duripg Jackson's administra-
tion.
a. Cause.
In the north.
Physical.
Spiritual.
In the south.
Physical.
Spiritual.
b. Development.
Through Garrison.
What he did.
Results :
On the north. *
Physical.
Spiritual.
On the south.
Physical.
Spiritual.
c. Results.
Immediate.
Remote.
The Problem of Method, 185
Montgomery, paragraphs 262, 263, 264.
McMaster, paragraph 333.
In grammar — -
I. Subject-matter. The basis of the classification of
verbs into transitive and intransitive.
II. Assig7ime7it. —
1. Tell the nature of the attribute expressed by each
verb in the following sentences.
2. Classify the verbs on the basis of the nature of the
attribute expressed.
Age shakes Athena's tower but spares gray Marathon.
Every plant demands good soil.
The beams of the moon struggled through the rain.
The setting sun threw a flush over nature.
Time passes quickly.
A comparison of the subject-matter and the assignment in
the two cases will shovv that the latter has as its function to
awaken attention to more distinctions than were suggested
by the statement of the subject-matter.
In addition the assignment is intended to indicate the
order of the distinctions, and, to a degree, their co-ordina-
tion and subordination.
It must not, however, be detailed enough to enable the
pupil to recite from it alone, as such recitation tends to ren-
der the lesson spiritless. There must be opportunity for the
animation arising from the teacher's active test, guidance
and co-operation.
The assignment is most closely a stimulus to the first
process in self-determination — the indistinct apprehension of
the subject-matter. Still, it fosters a transition into the
second stage. Viewed with reference to the universal process
in a lesson, it is a device to arouse the second stage and to
promote a transition into the seventh.
186 The Problem of Method.
The purpose of the assignment is to awaken an indistinct
consciousness of
1. The main material of the lesson.
2. The salient distinctions.
3. The central attribute or characteristic with refer-
ence to which the subject-matter is to be examined.
4. The order of the distinctions.
In addition to this, its aim is to stimulate and direct the
discovery of further distinctions.
Thus, the assignment, while related most immediately to
the first process in self-determination, is a strong stimulus
to the second. It even promotes the third process, to a de-
gree.
It would be helpful to examine the two assignments given
above in order to note their relation to the process of self-
determination and to decide what changes, if any, can be
made in order that they may conform more closely to the
purpose of an assignment.
Attention should also be given to the relative advantages
of—
The written and the oral assignment,
The avSsignment given at the beginning and that given at
the close of the lesson.
The Steps. — The third element in the structure of a lesson
is spoken of, in a figurative sense, as the Steps. According
to the Herbartian pedagogy, the step is the external activity
of the teacher and manifests itself in five successive stages.
The stages are called the five Formal Steps.
The term step as here employed, however, signifies the
psychological activity of the learner. It denotes the second
stage in self-determination — the separation or special act of
the learner's consciousness. This step must, however,
since it is the process of the self, involve more or less dis-
tinctly all three stages of the essential movement of con-
The Problem of Method. 187
sciousness. It is important to remember that each step in
a lesson is not only a determination, but a ^^^-determina-
tion, because this brings into prominence the fact that
some degree of independence or origination is present.
The more fully the process is an example of the learner's
initiative or independence the more clearly is it s^^-deter-
mination. Whatever of truth the pupil really grasps, he
must recreate or earn. It is for this reason that induction
seems to be more independent, more clearly ^^//-determina-
tion than does deduction. Neither is, however, the com-
plete process of self-determination. Each is merely one
aspect of it. The scientific method involves, as essential
elements, both induction and deduction, but the first is the
more characteristic, because it manifests the creative or in-
dependent tendency the more strongly. It is a mark of ar-
tistic teaching, therefore, when considering the character-
istic step of a lesson to ask —
1. Is this characteristic step essentially inductive?
2. How may it be made strongly inductive?
The characteristic step of a lesson is the learner's activ-
ity involved in the comprehension of the truth in the sub-
ject-matter.
This characteristic step arises through subordinate steps
which constitute its stages. For example, in a given les-
son the characteristic step may be the act of conceiving and
the subordinate steps may be the feeling of limit, sense-
perceiving, etc.
In the most comprehensive view the characteristic step of
a lesson can differentiate into three subordinate steps only —
1. The indistinct apprehension of the object as a whole.
2. The discovery of all of the distinctions in the object
appropriate to the pupil's stage of development, regarding
each distinction as independent or isolated.
3. The selection of the central distinction, and the or-
188 The Problem of Method.
ganization of the object by becoming aware of the relation
of the other distinctions to the main distinction or attribute.
In a more analytic view the steps are the stages in the
full process of a lesson indicated on page 181.
In a still more special sense a step in a lesson is any one
of the activities of the self in rendering subjective the ob-
ject to learned. These, in so far as the acts of knowing
are concerned, are indicated on pages 174-178. Each step"
consists of process and meaning or of form and content. To
render the characteristic step or any subordinate step defi-
nite botli form and content should be given.
The Purpose. — The purpose in life may be said to be the
establishment of the habit of freely choosing freedom itself
for the self and others equally. To possess this habit is to
have freedom both in form and in content The freedom
which is to be chosen is —
1. A mode of knowing which promotes the independence,
the development of all selves.
2. Satisfaction in a condition indicating a development
of all.
3. A tendency toward rational choice in ever}^ one.
4. x\ skillful, disciplined bodj^ for every one.
The purpose in the teacher is the act of choosing a certain
condition of freedom in the pupil. This condition of free-
dom in the pupil is to be brought about by his own activity
in mastering the subject-matter of the lesson. This act of
rendering subjective the subject matter of the lesson is the
second stage of self-determination as explained on page 154,
and the tendency or effect produced by the activity upon the
subject-matter is the third stage.
The subject-matter of any single lesson is always a frag-
ment of the immediate larger whole.
This is the basis for the distinction of the purpose, in so
The Problem of Method. 189
far as it relates to knowledge, into the special purpose and
the general purpose.
The special purpose is to stimulate in the pupil the exist-
ence of the adequate idea of the subject-matter as a habit.
In any given case this idea must be stated definitely by in-
dicating both form and content.
The general purpose is to awaken in the learner the ade-
quate idea of the immediate larger whole. This is partl}^
accomplished in any one lesson. Its complete accomplish-
ment requires the given lesson and one or more additional
lessons.
The statement of the special and general purpose must
not merely echo that of the subject-matter. The thought
of the subject-matter should be rendered somewhat more
definite by that indicated in the statement of the purpose.
Since the special subject-matter of a lesson is a fragment
of many larger immediate subjects, the statement of the gen-
eral purpose by the teacher to himself is necessary to insure
the emphasis of the relations unifjdng the special subject-
matter with the selected larger whole.
The freedom which was said to be the aim of life is to be
attained —
1. "By elevating the individual to his specitd." He is
to reproduce in himself the achievements of man.
2. "By making habitual in the individual activities that
reinforce rational institutions and which, in consequence, the
rational institutions can afford to reinforce."
These two statements are merely different forms express-
ing the same meaning.
In interpreting a lesson as to the effect purposed the teacher
or observer should
1. Indicate, in definite mental terms the special effect
purposed.
190 The Probi^em of Method.
2. Identif}^ it with freedom, according to either of the
above statements.
3. Explain briefly the identity.
Devices. — A device is not merely some object, as a map, or
a box of geometrical forms. It is not a picture, a drawing
or an outline. It is essentiallj^ an outward act of the
teacher, as a question, a direction, an explanation, a com-
mendation, the use of a map, the production and use of a
drawing. A device may include a question or direction of
the teacher, a reply or work at blackboard by the pupil and
the discussion of the reply or of the work.
1. The central requirement of a device is that its effect
shall be to concentrate the pupiV s attention on the object being
studied and its relations, rather than upon his language, his
manner, the degree of success he is attaining, the effect upon
his mental development, or the impression he is making.
The artistic device is one that leads the pupil to become ob-
jective, to lose himself in the object and its relations.
The teacher is assumed to know that knowledge is not
the end, but that inspiration, insight, character, constitute
the end. Still, this is not to be the attitude of the pupil in
the recitation. The device should aid him in becoming en-
grossed in the object being investigated.
This characteristic of device is based on the idea that all
true development in the pupil is due to the concentration of
his interests in something which seems to be other than
himself. The doctrine implied in this function of devices is
self-estrangement. {^Philosophy of Education, by Rosen-
kranz, pp. 27-28.) Self- estrangement is the second stage
in the law of the self. The aim is to enrich the mind of the
learner by having the strange object become familiar. Thus
the central characteristic of all devices rests upon the total
process of consciousness in that it assumes a potential or
unspecialized condition in so far as the strange element in
The Problem of Method. 191
the object is concerned, stimulates directly a concentration
upon the alien feature of the object and thus contributes to
the enrichment of the self which returns from the estrange-
ment.
The nature of the central characteristic of devices makes
it evident that they should harmonize with the following
thought :
a. That the ideal in education is the total experience
of humanity and not merely knowledge. It is not enough
for the pupil to gain a knowledge of the main facts con-
cerning the Emancipation Proclamation. The aim must be
to have him experience, to a degree, in his particular life,
the total process of the race in objectifying itself in that
event.
b. That the change or determination to be brought
about in the child is to be ^^//-determination. His attitude
must not be that of passivit)^ His initiative and choice, his
modes of expression and explanation, are to be given en-
couragement as fully as the development contemplated in
the lesson will permit. The tendencies to inquire and to
test are to be fostered. For example, he is to be given free-
dom from the text b}^ a series of devices that will develop
the power to wrest meaning from the text. Otherwise he
wall become passive. The ability to grapple with a difficult
sentence or paragraph and to interpret it b}^ an intelligent
process of study is an important form of ^^^-de termination.
c. That the pupil' s process or method in his develop-
ment is at once negative a?id positive. It is the renunciation
of inaccuracy and caprice in any given instance and the active
reproduction of the positive experience of the race in regard
to the same instance. For example, the pupil may have the
habit indicated in the following : "If any one wishes to read
some one of a number of books and the}^ can find no time to
read them they will become discouraged." To establish the
192 The Probi^em of Method.
pupil's education in regard to the appropriate language in
this case requires both a negative and a positive process, and
the latter is in harmony with the culture of the race. ' This
negative and positive process is essential in all aspects of
education. To be educated by a study of the Tories of the
Revolution, their negative and their positive traits must be
understood. To obtain a true development from an investi-
gation of a virtue, as truth-telling, of a church service, as a
prayer-meeting, of the history of a political party, the process
must be one which brings into consciousness the negative
and the positive.
d. That the teacher must identify himself as fully as
possible with the pupil in his struggle to know the object be-
ing investigated. The pupil has his dim vision, his partial
insight, his separative attitude, his distrust of his own pow-
ers, his dependence upon words.
The teacher must reproduce these mental conditions in his
ow^n consciousness as they are manifested from time to time
in the lesson. Then he must project them and identify them
with the pupil, thus realizing strongly within himself that
they are actual conditions of the pupil's mind. He must
finally vividly think these conditions as possible in himself
under similar conditions. Thus he has identified himself
with the pupil, and is in sympathy with him. This enables
the teacher to appreciate the pupil's failures and successes,
and to appear as a co-seeker of truth. Teacher and pupil be-
come, in a certain sense, comrades in a quest for the un-
known.
e. That the central or organizing principle of the
branch of study to which the subject-matter belongs, and
the process of consciousness suggest the order and the con-
centration of devices. For example, in the study of the
Emancipation Proclamation there should be a concentration
of devices to develop a knowledge of the outward event, of
The Problem of Method. 193
the mental attitude giving rise to it, and of the mental atti-
tude succeeding it. In the study of each of these three
aspects there should be a concentration of devices to awaken
an indistinct knowledge of the aspect as a whole ; and
a clear knowledge of the distinctions within it, and of its
systematic unification upon its characteristic or dominant
attribute.
194 The Probi^em of Method.
APPENDIX.
SERIES OF SENTENCES EXPRESSING THE
STAGES IN VARIOUS ACTIVITIES.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF A FOUR-INCH SQUARE.
The point is resting.
It moves to the right four inches.
It rests again.
A straight line appears.
It is horizontal.
The point moves perpendicularly downward four inches.
It rests a third time.
A second straight line is produced.
It is vertical.
It is perpendicular to the first line.
The difference in direction forms an angle.
It is a right angle.
The point moves perpendicularly to the left four inches.
It rests a fourth time.
A third straight line is formed.
It is horizontal.
It is parallel to the first line.
It is perpendicular to the second line.
The difference in direction of the second and third lines
forms a right angle.
The point moves directly to the place of starting.
A fourth straight line is produced.
Here the point finally rests.
The Problem of Method. 195
filling a tea kettle.
I am standing near the kitchen window.
I am looking out of the window.
I know the tea kettle is empty.
I think of the tea kettle as filled.
I go to the stove.
I take hold of the knob on the lid of the tea kettle.
I remove the lid of the tea kettle.
I continue to hold the lid in my left hand.
I walk to the bucket of water.
I find the dipper hanging on a nail.
I take hold of the handle of the dipper near the bowl.
I fill the dipper with water.
I walk to the stove with the dipper full of water.
I pour the water from the dipper into the tea kettle.
I walk to the water bucket again.
I fill the dipper a second time.
I walk back to the stove.
I empty the water from the dipper into the tea kettle.
A third time I walk to the bucket of water.
I refill the dipper.
I pour the contents of the dipper into the tea kettle.
I place the lid on the tea kettle.
I hang the dipper up in its proper place.
I return Ito the window.
I again look out of the window.
THE ACT OF SPRINKLING A SLATE.
Edwin sits at his desk.
He stands.
He walks toward the sprinkling bottle.
He draws near to the sprinkling bottle.
He reaches out his hand.
He takes hold of the sprinkling bottle.
196 The Problem of Method.
He turns.
He walks toward his desk.
He draws near to his desk.
He stops.
He turns the sprinkling bottle up side down.
He throws water on his slate.
He throws w^ater on his slate again.
He turns the sprinkling bottle right side up.
He walks toward the black board.
He draws near to the black board.
He reaches out his hand.
He places the sprinkling bottle in the ledge.
He turns.
He walks to his desk.
He sits at his desk.
AN ACT IN GRAVITATION.
A guinea-and-feather tube is lying on the table.
It is full of air.
A circle of paper and one of brass are in the tube.
They are of the same size.
I pick up the tube.
I hold it in my hand with the top up.
I invert it.
The force of gravitation pulls the paper and the brass
toward the center of the earth.
The air resists the downward movement.
The brass displaces the air and falls rapidly to the lower
end of the tube.
The paper displaces the air more slowly than does the
brass.
It flutters in the air.
It finally reaches the lower end of the tube.
I turn the tube top end up.
The PROBI.EM OF Method. 197
The force of gravitation pulls the paper and the brass
toward the center of the earth.
The brass reaches the bottom sooner than the paper.
I screw a stop-cock to the bottom of the tube.
I fasten one end of a rubber tube to the stop-cock.
I fasten the other end to the air pump.
I grasp the handle of the air pump.
I move it vigorously up and down many times.
This exhausts the air from the tube.
I turn the thumb-screw on the stop-cock.
This prevents the air from entering the tube.
I take the rubber tube off the stop-cock.
I again invert the tube.
The paper and the brass reach the lower end of the tube
at the same time.
A RKPI.Y TO AN INVITATION.
Edna is in receipt of an invitation to dinner.
She recalls all her engagements for the week.
She finds that she has no engagement for the evening
named in the invitation.
She decides to accept the invitation.
She goes to the writing desk.
She selects a sheet of un-ruled note paper, black ink, and
a good pen.
She writes the following note :
Miss Edna Crafton accepts with pleasure Miss Katharine Stanford's
kind invitation to dine with her on Monday evening.
She selects an envelope to correspond with her paper.
She folds the note once.
She slips it into the envelope.
She addresses it.
She places a stamp on the upper right hand corner of the
envelope.
She posts the note.
198 The Probi^em of Method.
a test in chemistry.
I place the oxygen generator on the table.
I fill one-third of a test-tube with potassium chlorate and
black oxide of manganese.
I cork the tube and connect by rubber tubing with the
bottles in the generator.
I light the gas.
I heat the tube gently at first.
I gradually increase the heat.
The heats expands the air in the tube.
The air escapes in bubbles.
The air escapes more rapidly in bubbles.
I heat the tube until I have sufficient oxygen for my pur-
pose.
I cover one of the bottles with a glass slide so that the
oxygen will not escape.
I remove the bottle.
I take a piece of magnesium ribbon.
I put it into the flame.
It burns with a bluish-white light.
It combines with the oxygen of the air.
It forms a white powder.
This powder is oxide of magnesium.
I take another piece of magnesium ribbon.
I light it in the flame.
I remove the slide from the bottle.
I put the ribbon into the bottle.
It burns with a blue light.
It deposits a white powder.
I compare this powder with the powder left from the first
experiment.
I find they are similar.
I conclude that the magnesium ribbon burns more freely
in the bottle than in the air.
The Problem of Method.
199
I see that it burns more freely in the bottle since there is
more oxygen there.
I infer that in both cases the magnesium unites with the
oxygen.
THE ACT OF LAYING A BRICK.
The mason stands beside the wall which he is building.
He procures a trowel full of mortar from the mortarboard.
He spreads it evenly over the place where he intends to
la}^ the brick.
He gets another trowel full of mortar.
He picks up a brick from the ground.
He throws up a cross or header joint.
He lays the brick on the wall very carefully.
He probably taps the brick lightly with the handle of the
trowel, or with the edge of the blade.
This settles the brick into the correct position.
He scrapes the mortar, which has been pushed out by the
brick, from the side of the wall.
He spreads the mortar, just gathered, over the top of the
brick.
He pauses ia his work to speak with a friend who is pass-
ing.
TRANSACTION ON SHORT CREDIT.
James Smith, the grocer, sells John Jones ten pounds of
sugar and ten pounds of salt on credit, the account to be
paid in a short time.
Mr. Smith turns to his day-book and makes an entry, thus:
Nov,
John Jones, Dr.
To 10 ft) Sugar @ 6c.
10ft) Salt @ 2c.
20
80
In the evening, Mr. Smith posts this account in his led-
ger, which in this case is a small indexed account file, with
detachable slips.
200
The Problkm of Method.
In ten da3's Mr. Jones calls to pay his account.
Mr. Smith immediately opens his account j51e at the letter
*'J," and sees Mr. Jones' account.
He takes out the slip, receipts it, and hands it to Mr.
Jones, who thereupon pays it.
Mr. Smith then turns to his cash register and registers 80
cents, counting it as a cash sale of the day.
TRANSACTION INVOI.VING AN INDEFINITE ACCOUNT.
James Smith, the grocer, is asked by John Jones for credit
for three or four months.
Mr. Smith consents, takes his order, and enters it in his
day-book, thus :
Nov. 9 John Jones, Dr.
To 10 ft) Sugar @ 6c.
10ft) Salt @, 2c. 20
In the evening Mr. Smith opens an account with Mr. Jones
in a large ledger in which he keeps all accounts which run
indefinitely, and makes an entry, thus :
Dr. JOHN JONES, Cr.
Nov.
To Mdse.
Page
Day
Book
80c
Page
Cash
Book
All succeeding orders are posted nightly to this same ac-
count.
In three months' time Mr. Jones calls to pay his account.
Mr. Smith turns to his ledger, states the amount, and re-
ceives the cash.
Mr. Smith then makes out a bill and receipts it, giving it
to Mr. Jones.
He then takes his cash-book and makes an entry, credit-
ing Mr. Jones' account in full
This Cash-book entry is posted in the ledger, and Mr.
Jones' account is balanced and closed up.
The Problem of Method. 201
printing a book.
The author takes the manuscript cop}^ for a book to the
printer.
He tells the printer the size of the pages, kind and size
of type wanted and how the book is to be bound.
The printer takes the copy and examines it carefully so as
to understand the nature of the work before him.
He then adjusts a composing vStick to the width of the
book pages, so that the lines of the reading matter will be
of exactly the same length.
He then takes the copy and composing stick to the case
of type selected for the book.
He picks the letters one by one from the case, spelling the
words as they appear in the manuscript of the author.
He continues to pick up the letters, one by one, spelling
word after word, making line upon line, until he comes to
the end of the copy.
He then carries the t3^pe lines to the proof press.
He runs a soft roller covered with ink over the type.
He places the inked type on the proof press with a sheet
of paper over them and prints a proof sheet.
He sends this proof sheet to the author.
The author reads it over carefully, noting and marking
all errors.
He then returns it to the printer.
The printer corrects the errors which the author has
marked.
He then divides the lines up into pages, and puts a head
line and page number over each page.
He lays all the pages on the imposing stone.
He places an iron frame around them, called a " chase."
He places the pages in their proper positions in this
"chase" and fastens them there.
He sends the type, fastened in the chase, to the pressman.
202 The Probi^em of Method.
The pressman places the t3^pe on the press.
He fastens it there so that it cannot move.
He runs a sheet of paper of proper size, and the type
through the press.
The result is that he has printed a sheet of paper covered
with pages of the book.
He runs another sheet of paper and the type through the
press.
He has printed another sheet of pages.
He repeats this operation until the required number of
sheets have been printed.
He then sends the printed pages to the book-binder.
The book-binder folds the printed sheets so that the pages
follow in proper order as one finds them in the finished book.
He sews the different sheets of the book together.
He takes the sewed books to the trimming machine.
He places the books in the machine and trims them so
that they are smooth on the edges and of the same size.
He fastens the outside covers on the books.
The books are delivered to the author.
He examines the complete book.
A GEOI.OGIC ACTIVITY.
A granite peak stands upon the crest of a mountain range.
The rock is made up of white crystalline masses of hard
quartz, red cryvStalline masses of softer feldspar, and glitter-
ing gold-colored leaves of soft mica.
The rain and snow water soak into the pores of the rock.
The water fre^es in the pores of the rock and by expand-
ing makes cracks in it.
The water dissolves and carries away some portions of the
rock, and thus loosens the undissolved portions.
When the sun shines the rock gets very warm and ex-
pands ; when the sun sets the rock gets very cold and con-
The Problem of Method. 203
tracts ; the expansion and contraction break it up still more.
The roots of trees penetrate the cracks, and as they grow
in size force the sides of the cracks further apart.
The air goes into the rock with the water and rots and
softens some of the material.
The larger and more numerous the cracks become the more
is the rock exposed to the attacks of air, water, heat and
frost.
As soon as a piece of rock, large or small, becomes loos-
ened, gravity pulls it down the steep slope.
The rain and melted snow run over the surface and wash
away the loose fragments.
In the course of thousands of years the granite peak
crumbles to pieces and is carried away down into the valley.
The stream at the bottom of the valley carries away the
fragments of rock that fall into it.
When the snows melt in the spring the stream is a torrent
which rolls and pushes along great stones and boulders.
When the flood vSubsides the stream is able to carry only
sand and gravel.
As the sand, gravel and boulders are carried down stream
they are knocked about and rolled over one another and
against the rocky bed of the stream.
The corners and edges of the sand grains and gravel stones
are worn off ; they grow smaller in size and become more
and more rounded.
As the}^ go further down stream the pieces of hard quartz
change least rapidly, but the softer pieces of feldspar and
mica are reduced to a fine soft powder.
The quartz never becomes finer than sand.
The stream is joined by other streams and becomes a river.
The river carries along in its current the rounded gravel,
the grains of sand and the fine, soft powder, now called mud
or clay.
204 . The Problem of Method.
As the river approaches the sea its slope becomes more
gentle and its current slower.
As the current slackens it is less able to carry the coarser
material.
It first drops the gravel, then the sand, and finally is able
to carry only the mud.
At high water the force of the stream is greater, and it
picks up again the sediment it has dropped, only to drop it
again further down stream.
The sediment is drop|)ed and picked up again a thousand
times, but at last is carried into the ocean.
As the current of the river is gradually checked by the
still water of the ocean, the coarser particles of sediment
settle to the bottom and form a sand bar.
The finer mud is carried further out to sea and settles to
form a mud bank.
Thus the tendency of the river is to sort out the coarse sed-
iment from the fine, and to deposit all the sand in one place
and all the mud in another.
The velocity of the current varies from season to season
and from year to year.
The river at one time deposits sand and at another time
mud, in the same place.
The sediment is always deposited in nearly horizontal lay-
ers, one above another, and is always more or less assorted
into layers of sand and layers of clay.
Frequently the sand and clay are mixed together in the
same layer, and. in different proportions in different layers.
The waves, tides and currents of the ocean transport and
assort or mix up the river sediment and deposit it again in
new forms and positions.
Everywhere along the coast and for miles out to sea the
waste of the land accumulates in beds of sand and clay.
The Problem of Method. 205
As the beds are piled on each other the pressure on the
lower ones becomes greater.
The sand beds are compressed and consolidated into sand-
stone, the clay beds into shale and the mixed beds into mixed
sandstone and shale.
The pile becomes very thick and heavy, and with the ever-
increasing load the crust of the earth under it is pressed
down.
The crust of the earth is not strong enough to sustain the
weight and slowly sinks, forming a great trough.
As the trough becomes deeper it is kept even full of sedi-
ment.
As the thickness of the sediment increases the upper sur-
face remains near the surface of the water.
The sediment sometimes becomes eight miles thick.
As the beds of sandstone and shale sink nearer to the
centre of the earth they grow hotter.
At a certain depth they become as hot as red-hot iron.
The pores of the sandstone and shale are filled with sea
water.
By means of the great pressure of the beds above them,
the high temperature and the water, the sandstone and shale
become partially liquid.
In the course of ages the mineral matter of which they
are composed again crystalizes into masses of hard, white
quartz, softer red feldspar and soft, glittering mica.
The sand and mud beds have been converted into granite.
The looseness and softness of the material which fills the
trough of the earth-crust makes the crust weaker all along
the shore of a continent.
The pressure from the stronger earth-crust on both sides
squeezes the weaker part of the crust into wrinkles and
folds.
206 Thk Problem of Method.
The folds are slowly crushed together and slowly raised
higher.
The upper edges of the folds rise above the sea and are
finally pushed up into new mountain ranges.
Air, rain, heat, frost and gravity attack the rising land.
The covering of sandstone and shale is finally stripped off,
exposing the granite below them.
Again a granite peak stands upon the crest of a mountain
range,
THE ACT BY WHICH AN ALIEN BECOMES A CITIZEN.
Mr. Shannon comes to the United States from Ireland.
He wishes to become a citizen of the United States.
He presents himself before the District Court of the United
States.
He declares his intention to become a citizen of the United
States.
This declaration is recorded by the Clerk of the Court.
He receives a certificate from the Clerk.
He returns to his home.
He spends his time in work at his trade.
He also makes himself familiar with the laws of the United
States.
He again presents himself before the Court.
He proves to the satisfaction of the Court that he has re-
sided five years within the United States.
He also proves that he has lived in the State one year.
He affirms that he has borne a good moral character.
He proves that he has been well disposed toward the Con-
stitution and government.
He renounces allegiance to every foreign power, includ-
ing that of which he was formerly a subject.
He declares on oath that he will support the Constitution
of the United States.
He receives his certificate of citizenship from the Clerk.
The Problem of Method. 207
how an acorn becomes an acorn again.
An acorn has just fallen from an oak tree.
The acorn consists of a germ surrounded by a hard outer
covering which serves for protection.
The germ has stored within it large amounts of nourish-
ment which it is to use in its growth until it shall have de-
veloped far enough to make its own food.
The germ consists of a little stem, the caulicle, of two
seed leaves, the cotyledons, and of the tiny plumule.
The cold winds of fall and the snow and frosts of winter
make the acorn lie dormant during these seasons.
Approaching spring ushers in bright sunshine and warm
rains.
The warmth and moisture quicken the latent energies of
the acorn.
The germ begins to imbibe water, and swells.
The insoluble foodstuffs stored in the acorn are converted
into soluble ones by the energy of the germ.
A dialysis of this material causes a flow of these food-
stuffs to the growing points of the acorn.
The continued swelling caused by all these changes bursts
the acorn shell.
Out of the cleft the growing caulicle protrudes.
The caulicle rapidly elongates and penetrates the ground
a short distance.
On the underground portion of the caulicle small rootlets
begin to grow.
The seed leaves remaining in the shell furnish nourish-
ment to the growing parts.
The first leaves of the plumule appear above ground.
The sunshine on the plumule leaves incites the production
in the leaf of green chlorophyll.
By means of this chlorophyll the young plant forms the
third set of leaves as well as the growing tip of the stem.
208 The Problem of Method.
On the growing tip new leaves appear in regular succes-
sion.
In the axils of thCvSe leaves branches grow.
By the continued growth of these parts the little germ be-
comes a small oak plant.
A continuation of the.se changes through many years
changes the oak plant into an oak tree.
The oak tree bears small inconspicuous flowers.
These flowers are of two kinds.
The sterile flowers produce stamens in which many small
powdery grains called pollen grains are found.
The fertile flowers produce pistils
Bach pistil bears two ovules.
The wind carries some of the pollen grains to the tip of
the pistil called the stigma.
The pollen grains grow down through the pistil until they
reach the ovules.
They penetrate into the ovules and fuse with the egg cell.
The egg cell of one ovule grows into a small germ.
The other ovule becomes abortive.
Each pistil now contains but one germ or seed.
The germ develops large seed leaves or cotyledons and
stores them with nourishment.
The pistil forms a firm shell around the contained seed.
The calyx of the flower helps to form this shell.
The involucre around the base of the pistil forms a leafy
cup in which the ripened pistil rests.
The leafy involucre and the pistil are together commonly
termed the acorn.
The acorn receives nourishment all during the summer
season from the parent oak.
In autumn the acorn is fully formed or ripe.
The autumn winds begin to blow.
Again an acorn falls from an oak tree.
The Problem of Method. * 209
cell action.
A new cell has just been added to the developing egg.
The cell consists of a cell body and a nucleus.
The cell body consists mainly of protoplasm containing
food particles.
The nucleus consists of firmer protoplasmic threads form-
ing a " network " of fibres.
In this network is contained also fluid protoplasm.
The entire nucleus is surrounded by a very delicate mem-
brane — the nuclear membrane.
A slightly firmer layer of protoplasm often makes a cell
wall for the cell body.
Close to the nucleus lies a little roundish body called the
centrosome.
The living new cell takes in nourishment and grows.
Soon it is ready to divide itself and produce a second new
cell.
The centrosome divides into two centresomes and they
begin to move to the opposite ends of the cell.
The membrane of the nucleus and the nuclear threads
seem to dissolve and vanish.
They soon reappear, however, in the form of a very long
and fine coiled thread.
Around the centrosomes, as soon as they separate, radiat-
ing rays arise.
Between the centrosomes these rays unite and form a so-
called spindle.
On the opposite sides of the centrosomes the rays diverge,
like the rays from the sun.
The centrosomes assume such a position that the body of
the spindle runs through the changing nucleus.
The finely coiled thread of the nucleus becomes much
shorter and thicker.
The shortening and thickening continues until the whole
210 • The Problem of Method.
thread is reduced to comparative!}^ few folds — frequently
twelve.
The folded thread now breaks up into separate pieces,
equal in number to the folds just described.
Each V-vShaped piece now splits longitudinally, and the
number of V's is doubled.
Half the V's now travel to one centrosome, the other half
to the other centrosome.
They arrange themselves in each case around the centro-
some, so that they touch at their ends.
They fuse at their ends, and the twelve V's become a
folded thread.
This folded thread becomes longer and finer.
It soon becomes similar to the original nucleus from which
it came.
It has formed in each case a network of nuclear fibres and
a nuclear membrane.
Lying close to it as before is the centrosome.
The cell body now constricts itself in the median plane,
and soon divides itself into two smaller halves.
The radiating lines from the centrosome disappear.
When the division of the cell body is complete the two
Tialves become .separate, and two new cells have been derived
from the preceding cell.
Again a new cell has been added to the developing egg.
Etc.
It is to be assumed that before entering upon the work of
guiding the pupils in constructing a series, the teacher has
clearly in mind the nature of the entire activity, and also
the form of the various sentences in which this activity is to
be expreSvSed, substantially. The pupil is not assumed to
know either. The work begins with the consideration of
the action. In no case are the sentences to be given to the
The Problem of Method. 211
child. The pupils are actually to construct each series and
the work is to be largely oral.
The teacher should begin by indicating the purpose of the
activity to be expressed.
The thought underlying the first sentence of the series,
is then to be worked out carefully. For example, in the
series concerning the tea kettle the child's attention should
be turned to the entire action expressed by the sentence and
then to the meaning expressed by ' * near " , " window ' ' ,
* ' kitchen ' ' , etc. The sentence which is finally constructed
to express the entire action is to be settled upon only after
careful comparison and discrimination concerning words.
For example, the teacher should lead the childi-en to think
whether it would be more appropriate to employ ' ' stands ' ' ,
or ' ' am standing ' ' ; whether to employ * ' at " , * ' by " or
'* near", etc.
In all this, as above indicated, the sentence is not to be
put before the children in its visible form. It is to be dealt
with only orally. The exact form of the sentence having
been decided upon, it is then to be made the property of
each member of the class orally. In the exercises on this
point the work of the teacher must be controlled closeh^ by
the language act ; that is, he is at all times to lead the pupil:
1. To obtain the meaning (the object in language).
2. To think the expression, (the expression in lan-
guage).
3. To think their correspondence, (the harmony, the
correspondence in language).
This work in mastering the sentence orally, involves
everything under the pronunciation, enunciation, modula-
tion, emphasis, etc.
One by one, each sentence of the series is to receive sub-
stantially the same treatment. The series of sentences is to
be so thoroughly learned orally, that the child can begin
212 The Problem of Method.
with the first partial action of the larger concrete activity,
and both think the various subordinate acts in their true
succession, and express these successive acts by the corre-
sponding oral sentences.
The various natural divisions in the activity are to be
noted by the pupil, and to be indicated in his oral expres-
sion.
The foregoing deal with the actions and the correspond-
ing sentences as a whole. This having been done, each
pupil is to be made able to select the essential element of the
entire action expressed in a sentence ; to employ the w^ord
or words expressing it, and thus to move through the entire
activity, employing only the words asserting the action. In
the series concerning the tea kettle, the pupil should give,
' ' am standing " , " am looking " , " know " , " think ' ' ,
" go " , " take hold of " , " remove ' ' , etc.
This kind of work is undertaken in order to give the pupil
the habit of selecting the central action in the entire activity,
and of recognizing especially the vital element in the sen-
tence — the verb.
In conducting the work upon this and other features, it is
often helpful to have the pupils assist in directing the work.
That is, the pupils may at various times act as teacher —
asking questions, giving directions, expressing the commen-
dations or cautions concerning the nature of the work, etc.
The foundation series of sentences constructed by the
pupils should be, as a rule, in the form of the present tense,
third person, singular, indicative mode. This is the natural
expression for the child. In the series above referred to,
the form worked out by the children should be :
She is standing near the kitchen window.
She is looking out of the window, etc.
The pupils should be led to see in any given series the re-
lation of means to end. This should be emphasized. The
The Problem of Method. 213
action expressed by the first sentence is a means to that ex-
pressed by the second. The action expressed by the second
sentence is a means to that expressed by the third, etc.
While this may not be true in every possible case, it is the
general rule and the controlling thought in determining the
order of the actions to be expressed.
Not only is the action expressed in a given sentence a
means to that expressed in the following sentence, but also
the action in any sentence is the end or result of a series of
subordinate actions. For example, the act of standing near
the kitchen window is the result of a series of preceding
actions all intended to bring about that end. In order to
to render the child still more accurate and discriminating in
the choice of w^ords, he should at least once during the study
of each series be led to discover and appropriately to ex-
press the various actions leading up to this one action ex-
pressed by the sentence.
In concluding these general suggestions concerning the
w^ork of any series, three thoughts are worthy of iteration :
1. in considering any action to be expressed by a series
of sentences, the teacher is to view the act as returning to
itself. It is probable that any act in nature or in human
life, viewed in its entirety, would be seen to be, employing
Hegel's significant term, a ''return to itself." Work of
this kind will accustom the child to this view of nature.
2. Under all stages of work, the teacher is to be careful
to present such actions, directions, and illustrations as are
adapted to lead the pupil to think :
a. The object or meaning very clearly and dis-
tinctly.
b. The expression.
c. The correspondence of object and expression.
This three-fold movement of thought is the language act.
214 The Problem of Method.
It is the method in language. As such it is to be constantly
before the teacher in all language work.
As before indicated, the language act in full, is — thinking
the object ; creating the purpose ; thinking the expression,
and thinking the correspondence between expression on the
one hand, and purpose and object on the other. Since,
however, the special purpose renders the object special, the
purpose is always involved in the object expressed b}^ lan-
guage. For this reason, the language act is here spoken of
as three-fold. That is, as thinking the object, thinking the
expression, and thinking their correspondence.
3. It is very important that the sentences of any given
series should be very clearly understood as to their mean-
ing, and made completely the pupil's own orally, before
moving out into the field of the derived work.
It is evident that the series of sentences expressing any
action, constitutes the bare frame- work for an organized
composition. It is also clear that this composition w^hen
fully organized is of the nature of narration. It is further
evident that the individual objects to be expressed in de-
scription, the general objects to be expressed in exposition,
and the relations giving rise to argumentation, are found in
the material of each action. In considering the work under
composition :
1. Attention will first be turned to several kinds of pre-
liminary work.
2. Succeeding this, the work of changing the series of
sentences as a bare structure, into a piece of organized dis-
course, will be noted.
3. In the third place brief reference will be given to the
more systematic work under description.
Among the kinds of preliminary work are the following :
a. Under the guidance and suggestion of the teacher
the pupils may be led to select the expressions in the series
Thk Problkm of Method. 215
of sentences known as subjective language. In the series of
sentences concerning the tea-kettle there are found such ex-
pressions as "I know," " I think," " I find." This kind
of work should be slight at first, gradually increasing in ex-
actness and importance as the children become more ad-
vanced in the work.
b. Beginning as early, perhaps, as in the third grade,
the children should be led to consider the Jigiirative lan-
guage based upon the series of sentences studied in the
second grade, and also tliat based upon those studied in the
third grade. This figurative language is based upon the
separate words in the sentences, and also upon the central
thought pervading the entire action. Some of the figura-
tive expressions to be noted as arising from the series of
sentences expressing the action of filling the tea-kettle, are
the following :
(1) Based on separate zvords in the series concern-
ing the tea-kettle,
(a.) In the sixth sentence. On take. '* Take
fast hold of instruction." Prov. IV-13. On lid. "The
kettle lid, on or off, and the pumper, give a very good pic-
ture of modern theory and practice." Thring's Theory
and Practice of Teaching. Etc.
(b.) In the eighth sentence. On continue.
* ' If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples in-
deed."
On hand. * ' He was always reckoned a lively hand at a
simile," etc.
(c. ) In the seventeenth sentence. On ivalk.
*' Oh ! for a closer walk with God," etc.
(d.) In the eighteenth sentence. On empty.
" I shall find you empty of that fault." " Pleased in the
silent shade with empty praise." On zuater. " Remember-
216 Thk Probi^km of Method.
ing he had passed over a small water, a poor scholar when
first coming to the university, he kneeled." Etc.
(2) Based on the pervadmg thought^ in the
series concerning the tea-kettle.
The main thought in this series may be duty. This mental
attribute may be imaged as a person. It is so imaged in
the following :
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man ;
When duty whispers *Lo, thou must !'
The youth replies 'I can.' "
Carefulness may be viewed as that with which one is
mainly impressed in studying all the various phases of the
action. An analogy may be discovered between this trait
and a rampart.
Carefulness, in the image of the rampart, ma}^ then be
spoken of in a series of sentences.
c. Work with isolated seyitences. This work does not
always use the sentence in the exact form in which it ap-
pears in the series. The aim of the work is to make the
child more familiar with the exact significance of words and
with the properties they possess, due to the expression of
their meaning. The different steps in this work are here-
with noted :
(1.) The sentence is changed into the form that
will best lead the child to determine the significance of the
words from their connection in the sentence only. For ex-
ample, if the first sentence in the series embodying the
action of filling the tea-kettle is used, instead of using it as
it is, the teacher may place it upon the board modified as to
the subject, thus : "It is standing near the kitchen win-
dow."
(2) The child is then required to image an ap-
propriate environment for the actor and the action. This
Thk Problem of Method. 217
is to be set forth in the form of a story, and written upon
slate or paper. One part of the story is to be the sentence
that was placed upon the board. These stories are then to
be read, and, through the suggestion of the teacher and
other pupils, to be modified, condensed, given greater unity,
etc. One of the pupils might present some such story as the
following :
" Yesterday my mother was shopping. In passing one
of the dry goods stores she saw a beautiful doll in the
window. She bought it for me. I was very much de-
lighted with it. I have been playing with it nearly all
morning. I am now through playing with it until after
dinner. It is standing near the kitchen whidow. This is not
a good place for it. I must take it into the sitting room."
Another might image a different environment, and give
expression to it in a different stor}^, thus :
' ' This morning I found a young bird under the apple
tree. It was too young to fly. It must have fallen out of
the nest. The rain had been falling for more than an hour,
and the little bird was very wet. I brought into the kitchen
and placed it under the stove. The air was warm there
and it soon became dry. After a while it began to walk a
very little. I then took it in my hand and put it on the shelf.
// is standing near the kitchen ivijidoiv. ' '
No doubt the stories as first presented upon the slates
would be much more crude in form than these, and much
more fragmentary. They would likewise have much less
unity.
(3) On the basis of the various stories the pupil
should be led to see the significance of the different words.
For example, it would be shown him that the word "it"
might mean a doll, a bird, etc.
(4) The children should then be led to notice what
may be called the properties of the word ; that is, they should
218 The Problem of Method.
be shown that the word *' it " means but one object ; that it
means the object spoken of ; that it means the object per-
forming the action, etc. Similar work should be taken with
the word * ' window ' ' , and with the other words of the sen-
tence.*
d. A fourth kind of preliminary work is that in which
the children substitute for any given expression other ex-
pressions having substantially, though not exactly, the same
meaning, and then decide upon the relative appropriateness
of the different expressions. This work in substitution
should begin with the verb, then pass to the subject, and
finally to the predicate. Thus in the first sentence the
children might substitute for * ' am standing ' ' the word
" stand" ; for " I ", the expression, '' the one who is speak-
ing " ; for *'near", "by" or "at", etc.
In each case the relative fitness of the different expres-
sions is to be carefully considered. The w^ork is important,
because in an elementary way it both makes a transition to
rhetoric and lays the basis for an intelligent discussion of the
different elements and words in the sentence, when in later
years scientific grammar is entered upon. One great diffi-
culty that the pupil encounters in determining the force
of the various expressions in a sentence, is his inability to
image corresponding expressions for the expression under
consideration.
e. The four kinds of work indicated grow im-
mediately out of the series of sentences. The fifth kind,
now to be considered, changes from the series of sentences
constructed by the pupils, to some finished selection of dis-
course. This finished selection is examined in order to
find, in the first place, what may be termed the embodied
series of actions, and the expression for it ; and in the sec-
ond place, to discover the connective, iterative and ex-
See work on Isolated Sentence in Inland Educator, Vol. Ill, Jan., 1897, p. 298.
The Problem of Method. 219
planatory sentences, the rhetorical features of the various
sentences, and whatever else is involved in transmuting a
bare succession of sentences, exhibiting a few successive
actions, into an organized, finished selection in discourse.
The following furnish material suitable to the explanation of
the work in question :
HOW A PRESIDENT IS MADE.
Despite our boasted education as a people, and in curious
contrast to the tremendous interest we take in elections, it
is doubtful if one voter out of ten can accurately describe
the process by which a President and Vice President are
made.
Commencing with the choice of electors oji the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November of presidential years ^ the
next step is the meeting of these electors at their several State
capitals on the second Monday in famiary following the elec-
tion. An act of Congress requires the electors of all the
States to meet on the same day. At this meeting each elector
casts his ballot for President ajid Vice Presiderit. He is at
perfect liberty to vote for whomsoever he chooses, but in
testimony to the high sense of honor which pervades the
American people it may be said that since the formation of
the government no elector has failed to vote for the candi-
date for whom he was elected. After the votes have been
cast they are sealed up and entrusted to one of the electors, zvho
is designated by his fellows for the purpose, and by him are con-
veyed to Washingto7i and delivered over. These sealed ballots
are directed to the President of the Senate, zvho opens them ' in
the presence of the House and Senate on the second Wed?iesday
of the Jollowiyig February, this joint session being required
by law. If it is found that any candidate for President has
received a majority of the entire electoral vote he is formally de-
clared elected, and the same is true of the Vice President ; but
220 Thk Problem of Method.
if no 07ie has received a 7najority for either of these offices the
joint session dissolves and the House proceeds to elect a Presiderit
and the Senate a Vice President,
In voting for President the House is restricted to the three
men who received the highest votes in the Electoral College.
In the House each State is entitled to one vote. How this
vote shall be cast is determined by a majority of the Con-
gressmen from each State. It makes no difference how the
State may have voted upon electors, a majority of the Con-
gressmen may determine how it shall vote when the presi-
dential election is thrown into the House. To elect, a ma-
jority of the entire number of States is required. The same
process is had in the Senate, with the exception that each
Senator has a vote and only the two highest voted for in the
Electoral College may be selected from. In case the House
should get iyito a deadlock ivhich should last beyo7id the ^th of the
following March, the Vice President chosen by the Seriate would
assume the presidential chair on that date, thus doing away
with the rule so prevalent in political affairs that an officer
holds until his successor is' elected and qualified. The old
President must step out, whatever may be the fate of his pre-
sumed successor.
- The Constitution did not seem to provide the means of
presidential succession which might be demanded under cer-
tain emergencies, and so the Forty-7ii7ith Co?igress passed a
bill fixing this succession as follows, after reciting the death,
resignation or disability of both the President and Vice Pres-
ident : Secretar}^ of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secre-
tary of War, Attorney-general, Postmaster- general. Secre-
tary of the Navy and Secretary of the Interior. It is pro-
vided, hoivever, that before either of these may as stun e the pres-
idejicy he m^ust first have been recognized by the Senate as a
Cabinet officer and possess in himself the constitutio?ial require-
7nents of a P'^'eside7it.
The Problem of Method. 22 1
gold lettering.
The sign letterer who is putting a gold sign on a window,
paints the letters upon the outside first, but these letters are
only for a guide — the gold is put upon the inside of the
glass. The gold leaf is so thin and light that the faintest
breath would be enough to blow it away — it is carried in the
familiar little books.
The letterer brushes the inner side of the glass, back of
the lettering painted upon the outside, with a brush dipped
in water containing a trace of mucilage. Then with a wide
and ver}^ thin camel's hair brush, which he first brushes
lightly back and forth once or twice upon the back of his
head, or perhaps upon his coat, to dry it if it needs drying,
and slightly to electrify it, he lifts from the book a section of
gold leaf sufficient to cover a section of the letter and places
it on the glass. He repeats these operations until the glass
back of the letter painted on the front is covered with the
leaf. It may require three or four sections, such as can be
picked up with the brush to cover the letter, or perhaps
more, depending on its size and shape. When he has com-
pleted the application of the leaf to one letter he dampens
the back of the next and proceeds with that in the same
manner, and so on until the letters are all backed with the
gold leaf.
Thus applied the gold leaf overlaps the letters more or less
on all sides. It is bright in color, like all gold, but it is not
shining ; it is burnished by rubbing it gently on the back —
of course, it cannot be rubbed on the face, for that is against
the glass — with a soft cloth. It burnishes, however, on the
face as well as on the back. Then the letters are backed.
The exact shape of the letter is painted over the back of the
gold leaf to fix and protect it ; and when the back is dry the
gold leaf projecting beyond the outline of the letter is brushed
off. It is not sought to save this projecting leaf ; there is not
222 The Problkm of Method.
enough of it to pay for the labor that would be involved in
gathering it together. Then the outside lettering, which is
done with paint that is but little more than oil, is rubbed off,
and the lustrous gold lettering is revealed.
THE DARK FOREST.
In the midway of this our mortal Hfe,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray,
Gone from the path direct : and e'en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
All else will I relate discover'd there.
How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd
My senses down, when the true path I left.
But when a mountain's foot I reached, where clos'd
The valley, that had pierce'd my heart with dread,
I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet's beam.
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
—Dante's Inferno, Canto /, lines 1-16.
ON A FEI.I.OW-PASSENGER ASLEEP ON THE TRAIN, WITH THE POEMS
OF BION AND MOSCHUS IN HIS HANDS.
Wake, wake him not ; a book lies in his hands.
Bion and Moschus live within his dream.
Tired of our world he fares in other lands.
Wanders with these beside Ilyssus' stream.
Dull, even sweet, the rumble of the train ;
'Tis Circe singing near her golden loom.
No garish show afflicts his charmed brain ;
Demeter's poppies brighten o'er her tomb.
Now, half awake, he looks on star-lit trees—
Sees the white huntress in her eager chase.
Wake, wake him not— upon the fragrant breeze
Let horn and hound announce her rapid pace.
The Problem of Method. 223
Unbaiiished gods roam o'er the thymy hills ;
Calm shadows sleep upon the purple grapes.
Hid are the naiads near the star-gemmed rills ;
Far through the moonlight wander lovelorn shapes.
Grey olives shade the dancing dryad's smile ;
Flutes pour their raptures through that visioned stream ;
Echoes like these our modern cares beguile —
Soft-whispering music from the old Greek's dream.
— Songs of Night a7id Day, F. W. Gunsaulus.
A. C. McClurg & Co.
It will be noted that two of the selections are prose, ex-
pressing mere facts ; and that the two others are poetry,
setting forth idealization.
In order to offer an explanation of the work, the selection
relating to the election of President and Vice-President is
taken. The other selections could be treated in a similar
manner.
In dealing with a selection in organized discourse, the
first work is to discover the embodied series of actions. This
is shown, substantially, in the article concerning the election
of President, by means of italics.
The second work is to construct the series of sente^ices ex-
pressing, the elements of the action. In the given case these
ma}^ appear somewhat as follows :
1. On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in No-
vember, in Presidential years, the qualified voters of each
state choose the electors for that state.
2. The electors meet at their several state capitals on the
second Monday in January after the election.
3. At this meeting each elector casts his ballot for Presi-
dent and Vice-President.
4. The electors then seal up the ballots.
5. They direct them to the President of the Senate,
Washington, D. C.
224 The Problem of Method.
6. They elect a messenger, usually one of their own
members.
7. The messenger carries the sealed ballots to Washing-
ton.
8. He delivers them to the President of the Senate.
9. On the second Wednesday of the first February after
the election, the Senate and the House of Representatives
convene in joint session.
10. The President of the Senate opens the ballots in the
presence of both Houses.
11. It may be found that one candidate for the Presi-
dency has received a majority of the entire electoral vote.
12. In that case he is formally declared elected to the
Presidency.
13. It may also appear that one candidate for the Vice-
Presidency has received a majority of the ballots.
14. He is then formally declared to be elected to the
Vice-Presidency.
15. It may, however, be found that no one has received
a majority of the electoral votes for the Presidency.
16. It may likewise appear that no one has received a
majority of the votes for the Vice-Presidency.
17. The joint session in such case dissolves.
18. The Senate proceeds to elect a Vice-President.
19. The House enters upon the election of a President.
20. It may be that the House fails to elect the President
before the 4th of the following March.
21. The Vice-President chosen by the Senate, thereupon
assumes the Presidential chair.
22. It is possible that both the Presidency and the Vice-
Presidency may become vacant by means of death, resigna-
tion or disability.
23. The forty-ninth Congress fixed the succession in
such case.
The Problem of Method. 225
24 The act of the forty-ninth Congress established the
following succession : Secretary of State ; Secretary of the
Treasury ; Secretary of War ; Attorney General ; Post
Master General ; Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of
the Interior.
25. The act provides that the one who becomes Presi-
dent in compliance with this law must have been recognized
by the Senate as a Cabinet Officer.
26. It further ordains that he must possess the constitu-
tional requirements for the Presidency.
The third kind of work is selecting the words that express
the central action in each sentence.
The fourth kind of work is the reconstruction of the sen-
tences on the basis of the verbs, as, for example, on the verb
of the first sentence, choose
(Who,) voters choose.
(More definite,) qualified voters choose.
(Still more definite,) the qualified voters choose.
(Fully definite,) the qualified voters in each state choose.
(What,) choose electors.
(More definite,) choose the electors.
(Fully definite,) choose the electors for that state.
(When — year,) choose the electors for that state in Presi-
dential years.
(When — month,) choose the electors for that state in
Presidential years in November.
(When — day,) choose the electors for that state in Presi-
dential years in November, on the first Tuesday after the
first Monday.
The fifth kind of work is the further organizatio?i of the
se7itence, produced by deciding upon the order of the various
expressions. This may throw the last expression given
above, showing the day on which the election is to occur, so
as to bring it first in the organized sentence. A high de-
226 The Problem of Method.
gree of skill in language and power to construct it, may arise
from a consideration of the various advantages accruing
from the different positions of the various expressions.
The sixth kind of work is an examination of the language
acconipa7iying the expressions revealing the series of actions.
For example, study will reveal that the first sentence is a
connective sentence, in that it connects ideas of our educa-
tion and ideas concerning our interest in elections (both sub-
jects being assumed to be present in the mind of the reader,)
with our ignorance of the process by which a President and
Vice President are made. This first sentence is also explan-
atory, its purpose being to reveal why the writer presents his
thoughts concerning the process of electing the President
and Vice President. In the second sentence the expressions
' ' commencing with ' ' and ' ' the next step ' ' are connective.
A sentence may be iterative, in that it may present activi-
ties a second time, etc. From this it will be observed that
the main kinds of sentences required in order to change the
mere series of sentences into organized discourse are three :
Connective sentences.
Iterative sentences.
Explanatory sentences.
In connection with each separate sentence, and also with
the sentences expressing the series of actions, certain rhet-
orical features are always involved in organized discourse.
These are shown in :
Arrangement.
Employment of subjective sentences.
Employment of figurative expressions including both
figures of speech and figures of thought.
A rhetorical feature produced by the arrangement is
shown in beginning the first sentence with ' ' Despite our
boasted education, etc.", instead of beginning it with
" One voter out of ten, etc." Among the subjective ex-
pressions are, " The interest we take " ; " It is doubtful ".
The Problem of Method. 227
Among the figurative expressions are, " Tlie tremendous
interest we take " ; " The next step " ; * ' High sense of
honor" ; " Get into a dead-lock" ; ''An officer holds" ;
' ' Must step out " . It will be noted that many of the figura-
tive expressions are also subjective expressions. In the ex-
pression, *' The House proceeds to elect a President and the
Senate a Vice President ", a figure of speech is found. One
is also found in the enumeration of the members of the Cab-
inet, indicating their order of succeeding to the Presidenc^^
When these rhetorical features have been discovered, it is
important that the pupils be led to consider their effect.
This finishes the treatment of the selection of organized
discourse. Equipped with the new power arising from such
work, the pupil is now able to turn to any one of the bare
series he has previously constructed, and transform it into
organized discourse. In doing this attention should be given
to several things :
1. The order of the different expressions in any given
sentence should be noted, and the advantage of any change
brought out. For example, the pupils may be led to com-
pare the following in reference to the first sentence in the
series concerning the kettle : ' ' I am standing near the
kitchen window," * ' Near the kitchen window, I am stand-
ing." " Standing near the kitchen window, am I." Under
order should be noted in the second case, the order of the
successive sentences.
2. The work succeeding the consideration of order is an
examination as to the combinations that may be made. These
combinations might appear as follows : "I am standing
near the kitchen window, looking out of it " "I know
the tea kettle is empty, and yet I think of it as filled ". ** I
then go to the stove and take hold of the knob on the lid of
the tea kettle, etc."
3. The third kind of work is what may be called the
elaboration of the series. It consists in the appropriate em-
228 The Probi^em of Method.
ploymeut of connective sentences, iterative sentences, sub-
jective sentences, explanatory sentences, and the use of
various rhetorical features, such as transposition, figures of
thought, etc. The following, prepared by students, may
furnish sufficient illustration of this elaboration of the bare
series ot sentences :
a. We can realize how much is to be done before
our end is accomplished when we want to build a house, ob-
tain a copy-right, or receive a degree at college, but how
little do we realize the many, many little acts that must be
performed before we have accomplished one, even one of
the least, of the acts in the sphere of the family, as for ex-
ample, that of filling the tea-kettle. I will here call atten-
tion to one set of conditions under which this act once oc-
curred : The cook, while waiting for her mistress, stood
near the kitchen window w^atching the little birds bathing
in the puddles of water which remained after a hard morn-
ing shower. While standing there she was reminded of the
tea-kettle she had left on the stove almost empty. She im-
mediately imaged it as filled, and walked to the stove to
remove the lid from the steaming kettle. She held the lid
in one hand while she walked to the bucket of water which
was on the table. She reached for the dipper which hung
in the usual place on a nail just above the bucket. She
took hold of the dipper near the bowl, so that she would be
less apt to spill the w^ater, and filled it with water. Hav-
ing filled the dipper she returned to the stove to empty the
water into the kettle. She repeated this action three
times, thinking the kettle would then be sufficiently filled.
And so it was. Then she replaced the lid on the tea-kettle,
and hung the dipper in its usual place, for she w^as always
particular that things should be kept in their proper places.
After she had completed this she returned to the window
and coniinued watching the little birds, for her mistress
had not returned from market.
The Problem of Method. 229
b. It is a cold December day and Mary is standing
near the kitchen window, looking out upon a charming
snow scene. She thinks that the little snow-covered fir tree
on the hill lacks only candles to complete it, and she also
thinks of her papa and mamma, who have gone to town on
a mysterious errand.
Her face wears a bright expression, for she remembers
her mother's parting words, " I feel that I can trust you,
Mary, to keep the fire bright and the kettle boiling."
This thought reminds her that the tea. kettle is probably
empty and must be filled at once. So she goes to the stove,
and taking hold of the knob, lifts the lid from the tea-ket-
tle. Still holding it in her left hand, she passes to the
water-bucket and removes the dipper from its accustomed
nail near b}^
Now, Mary is such a small girl that it is not easy for her
to dip water without spilling it, so she grasps the handle
quite near the bowl, to prevent such an accident. She fills
her dipper, and returning to the s^ove, very carefully pours
its contents into the tea-kettle. It takes three dipper-fulls,
so that her chubby arms quite ache by the time she has
iSnished.
She replaces the lid, hangs up the dipper, and returning
to the window, looks again at the fir tree which is soon to
bear candles, and waits patiently for the return of her papa
and mamma.
c. On a bright and sunny day I stand near the
kitchen wdndow, watching some birds as they pick up the
crumbs. As I do this, the clock gives warning of the ap-
proaching dinner hour. I know that the tea-kettle is empty
and at once think of it as being full. I walk to the stove
and remove the tea-kettle lid. As I hold it in my hand I
walk to the water-bucket, and finding the dipper hanging
on a nail aboVe the bucket, I take hold of the dipper-han-
dle close to the bowl in order to carry the water more easily.
230 The Problem of Method.
I take one dipper-full and empty it into the tea-kettle. I
pour in two more dipper-fulls and then the tea-kettle is
full. Placing the lid on the tea-kettle so that the water
will boil sooner, I hang the dipper in place again. I resume
my position at the window and again look out.
d. It was a clear, cold day in November, and the
bright fire in Farmer Jones' comfortable kitchen sent out a
cheerful glow. Mrs. Jones hurried to and fro, for a great
many things had to be done on this particular morning.
Tomorrow would be Thanksgiving and a number of guests
were expected. The farmer had gone into the village quite
early to purchase groceries, and now Mrs. Jones was ex-
pecting to hear the sound of old Doll's feet on the hard
frozen road at any minute, for she must have those things
to finish her baking. She left the table, where she was at
work, and was standing near the window looking out. Just
then she heard a queer, sizzing noise, and remembered that
the tea-kettle was empty. But it must be filled, for she
would need hot water to scald the turkey. So she hurried
to the stove, took hold of the lid of the tea-kettle and re-
moved it. Holding it in her hand, she walked to the
water-bucket which stood on the table. Mrs. Jones was a
very neat housekeeper and always kept things in their
proper places. Just back of the bucket hung the dipper on
a nail. She took it down, and filling it with water, poured
the contents into the tea-kettle, all the while grasping the
handle near the bowl, for she was so afraid of spilling the
water on her new carpet. This she did three times. She
then put the lid on the kettle and hung the dipper in its
place. Surely by this time Doll must be in sight, so she re-
turned to the window and again looked out. Just then the
horse's feet came clattering up the pike.
INDEX.
Page.
Alienation 33, 35
Abstract 33, 34, 36
Abstraction 127
Aphaeresis 144
Apocope 144
Asyndeton 144
Association 146
Synecdoche 146
Metonymy 146
Aspects 153
Apperception 159
Attribute 165
Isolated 165
Characteristic 9
Art Product 180
Assignment 183, 184, 185
Activity, Concrete, 212
Action, Embodied Series, . 223, 225
Composition 121
Organizing Principle .... 121
Scope, The 121
Divisions, The 121
Comparison 127, 145
Simile 145
Metaphor 145
Personification 146
Apostrophe 146
Allegory . 145
Page.
Contrast 146
Expressed 146
Antithesis . 146
Climax 146
Implied 146
Epigram •. . 146
Interrogation 146
Irony 146
Conceiving 175, 176, 177
Content 178
Content, Figures of, . . . 145, 146
Concrete 26, 34
Concept 114
Coherence 141
Devices 12, 151, 190, 193
Special 151
Divisions, Relative Importance
of 19
Discrimination 127
Discourse 148
Primary Law ....... 148
Secondary Laws 148
Distinction . . . 135, 138, 143, 148
Ellipsis ........... 144
Environment 137
Analagous 182
Epanalepsis 145
Epizeuxis 145
11
Index.
Page,
Form 178
Figures of 144-, 145
Function 178
Generalization 99
Genetic 121
Hypothesis
99
Imagination 160, 174
Mechanical 160
Separative 160
Creative 160
Image ^ 178
Immediacy 25, ,26
Introspective 157
Interpretation 161, 162
Induction 99
Isolation 28
Idea, Dominant, 153
Judgment 166
Immediate 166
Conditional 166
Definitive 166
Judging 177
Language Activity . . . .129, 175
Language Act . . . .211, 213, 214
Language
Interpretation 176
Subjective 215
Figurative 215
Life, Institutional 148
Page.
Limitation 154
Limit, Consciousness of . . . .158
Method, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 25,
26, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 112, 113
The fact in the thing .... 5
The law in the mind 6
The method in both 6
First view of 106, 114
Second view of 107
Third view of 108
Province of 20, 21, 22
Objective 16, 18
Subjective 19, 24
Analytic, Synthetic, Inductive,
Deductive 112, 113
Inductive 173
Scientific 117
Psychologic 118
In a Lesson 153
In Language . 215
Mind, Fundamental Movement
of 10
Means 23
Moral 156
Mnemonic 160
Memorization 127
Memory 159, 160, 174
Spontaneous ....••.. 159
Voluntary 160
Systematic 160
Mental Effects 21
Organizing Principle . . . . 8, 37
Object 35, 108
Onomatopoetic 141
Index.
Ill
Page.
Objectified . 157
Organizing 176
Presentiment 31
Plot 141
Pleonasm 145
Polysyndeton 145
Principle 153
Potentiality 154, 164
Process 155-180
Objectifying 155-157
Subjectifying 157-180
Presentation . . 158, 159, 174, 178
Perception 159
Premise 171
Major 171
Minor 171
Particular, The 182
Purpose 188
Of Life 188
Of Lesson 188, 190
Reasoning 128, 169, 177
Deductive 128, 177
Inductive 177
Deduction 172
Induction 170
Identifying 177
Identification 169
Representation . . . 159, 174, 178
Memory 178
Imagination 178
Ratiocination 176
Page-
Steps 10, 186, 188
Mental 19
Specialist 13
Scholarship 15, 16
Province of 24
Scope 19
Science 24
Subject . . . 35, 108
Subject- Object 36-127
Subjective-Objective . . . 156, 157
Spontaneity 131
Symbolic 136
Synthesis 143
Syncope 144
Self-determination .... 154, 191
Stage, Separative 157
Sensation 158
Subsumes 165
Subject-matter . . . 183, 184, 185
Self-estrangement 190
Sympathy 192
Substitution 218
Theory
Truth, Scientific
99
99
Thought 162-174, 179
Understanding 163, 179
Apprehension 164^
Distinction
Classification 1 64
IV
Index.
Page.
Identifiying 164
Separating 164
Unifying 164
Apprehending 179
Distinguishing 179
Abstracting 179
Discriminating 179
Comparing 179
Classifying 179
Generalizing 179
Analyzing the Object into
Cause and Effect ... 179
Discovering Structural
Idea of an Object . . . 179
Ratiocination 164-180
Conceiving 164-180
Judging 164-180
Reasoning 164-180
. Identifying 180
Inductive . 180
Deductive 180
Page.
Unity 27, 154
Fused 27, 154
Mediated 28
Differentiated 36
Undifferentiated 31
Universal, The 181
Verification 99
Visualization 140
Will 34
Objectified 34
Work 148
Constructive ........ 148
Synthetic 148
With Isolated Sentences . . 216
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA— BERKELEY
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