study. Memory furnishes the tools for mental operations; it is the source of much pure pleasure; and the faith that what he teaches will be remembered affords the teacher a constant motive for effort. By all means let children learn by heart, but do not let them, parrot-like, learn mere words. They should never be made to remember what they do not understand; nay, more, they should never be made to remember but because they understand. The Multiplication Tables, for example, should not be accepted on the authority of the teacher or the book. The pupil should build them up for himself by employing tangible objects, and should acquire perfect facility by repeating experiments, not by repeating numbers.

The aims of intellectual education are three utility, discipline, and pleasure. If a young man on leaving the

The three aims of intellectual education 1. Utility

university and entering his father's counting-house cannot read the letters of the firm's foreign cor. respondents, he is tempted to think that the time which he spent over classics has not been well spent; a knowedge of the Hellenic colonies does not compensate him for ignorance of the British colonies; and familiarity with the constitution of Athens or of Rome may not help him much in the recording of his own vote. Similarly, if a boy on leaving a primary school cannot write a letter correct in form and grammatical in expression, the fact that he can. analyse and parse a difficult sentence is of small comfort to him. It does not follow that Greek and Latin, analysis and parsing should not be taught, but it does follow that subjects which are likely to be of practical utility should be taught, and the shorter the school life the greater the proportion of it which should be given to such subjects.

The second aim of intellectual education is discipline. The mental powers grow and are strengthened by use, and we pursue certain studies not because we think that we are ever likely to be called upon to apply them, but because we know that they make the mind fitter for

2. Discipline

the performance of any task. Greek and Latin, apart from their value as keys giving entrance to ancient treasure-houses of thought and beauty, afford an excellent training in precision; analysis and parsing offer ready exercises in the logical process of classification. So with Euclid and Algebra. No one who knows these subjects will deny their practical value; but we do not teach them solely, or indeed mainly, because of that. Though a teacher might be sure that none of his pupils would ever be called upon to apply either, he would still, if the school life were long enough, teach both, for the sake of the mental development that the study of them brings. Algebra trains the mind to deal with abstractions and generalisations, and Euclid to make correct deductions from stated premises; and while skill in mathematics may, to many persons, be of small importance, skill in abstract and deductive reasoning must be of great importance to every one.

The third aim of intellectual education is æsthetic. Children must be taught to see and to admire the beautiful in nature, in art, and in literature, and to find in it 3. Pleasure unfailing springs of lofty aspiration and pure pleasure. Poetry and painting may be outside the limits of a narrow utilitarianism, but they are well within the limits of 'a complete and generous education.'

The predominant

aim

How far any one aim should predominate must be determined by the length of the school life. Where that is short, utility ought to be the chief consideration, though the other two ought never to be lost sight of. Whether the school life be long or short, those subjects of instruction are most precious which subserve more than one purpose. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, for instance, must be taught because of their utility, but Reading may be so taught as to develop the appreciation of literary form and moral worth; Writing may become an instrument for training the eye and the hand, and Arithmetic for training the reason.

The powers of the body, the mind, and the spirit alike grow

by use. It was not by working under a spreading chestnut tree, by eating nourishing food, or by reading about Hercules and Samson, that the village blacksmith succeeded in getting the muscles of his brawny arms

Exercise the secret of

growth

strong as iron bands; it was simply by wielding the hammer. The actor who becomes word perfect in a new part almost as fast as another man could read it, learned slowly enough when he first went on the stage; and the clever detective's ability to separate from a mass of facts the few relevant to his purpose came by practice. Similarly, the Happy Warrior

Is placable because occasions rise

So often that demand such sacrifice;

More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure
As tempted more; more able to endure

As more exposed to suffering and distress.

It follows, therefore, that the teacher must provide exercises for every power which he wishes to develop, and, as a corollary, that there must be an increase in the difficulty of the exercise, corresponding to the growth of the power.

If a

It follows also that learning must be the pupil's own act. boy is to be taught swimming, telling him how to move his Learning is hands and feet is not enough; he must go into self-teaching the water and move them. A teacher can with advantage direct his efforts, but can put forth no efforts for him. And what is true of the body is true of the mind. The teacher cannot exercise the pupil's powers, he can only stimulate and control the exercise of them. The teacher cannot see, hear, feel, touch, or smell for the pupil, but he can choose the objects which will best cultivate the pupil's senses, and he can make him observe the objects in the way which will produce the greatest results. The teacher cannot reason for the pupil, but he can select facts, and by judicious questioning make the pupil reason on them for himself. In short, the teacher cannot walk for the pupil; he can only induce him to try to

walk, show him the path, and smooth away some of the obstacles. The pupil who is carried gets no exercise, and if the process is repeated often enough, he loses, in the end, the power of walking.

The mind proceeds from the concrete to the abstract, from the particular to the general, and forms ideas of the things which have not come under the observation of From the concrete to the senses by modifying its ideas of the things the abstract which have come. A little child has a clear perception of Tom, Jack, Harry, before he has any idea of brother. So Amelia, Mary, Dorothy come before sister; brother, sister, father, mother, before relative; bow-wow, geegee, bah-lamb, before animal; chair, table, couch, sideboard, before furniture. Somewhat later white snow, white paper, white flowers, a white frock, a white shirt, give rise to the abstract idea of whiteness; and whiteness, blackness, and redness to the general idea of colour. A teacher who neglects this natural law is as much fore-doomed to failure as would be the farmer who attempted to grow potatoes on trees or apples underground. And it is a law which must be applied to every subject of instruction. In Arithmetic, for instance, children must be familiar with five fingers, five marbles, five beads, five pebbles, five anything, before they are introduced to the abstract number five. They must find out by many and varied experiments that six things and seven things make thirteen things before they can understand 5+8=13; and the power of abstraction and generalisation must be well-developed before they can realise the meaning of a+b=c. In Grammar, again, names must precede Nouns, the study of the functions of words must precede the division of words into parts of speech, and, generally, the examination of individuals must precede definition and classification.

of order

ORDER, ATTENTION, DISCIPLINE

ORDER is to the life of a school what food is to the life of the body. We take food not for its own sake, but that it may Importance enable the body to perform its functions; and we strive to get and to keep order not for its own sake, but that it may enable the school to perform its functions. It is a condition antecedent to all good work. The teacher, however learned and however skilful, who has not the power of command is but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Fortunately, that is a power which every person of intelligence who is willing to pay the price may obtain. The price is diligent cultivation of the teacher's own character, and untiring attention to details.

Order depends on the teacher

The first, second, third, and final cause of order is the teacher, and his success as a disciplinarian will depend largely on his success in cultivating Coleridge names three of

certain moral qualities in himself.
these :

O'er wayward childhood would'st thou hold firm rule,
And sun thee in the light of happy faces,

Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces,
And in thine own heart let them first keep school.

The man or woman who does not feel deep and abiding love for children as children, who does not watch with interest

Essential qualities in the teacher : I. Love of children

the unfolding of their minds, who is not ready to share in their games as well as their tasks, who does not sympathise with the most troublesome, who does not recognise the infinite possibilities of their natures, has no right to be a teacher. An unloving