314 INTRODUCTION TO NEUROLOGY 



come into function in a sucking babe or a kindergarten pupil. 

 Childish curiosity is our strongest ally, if only we can use it 

 wisely, throughout the whole of the educational career from in- 

 fancy to the graduate school. Anger is a mighty passion in child- 

 hood. It is not wise to eradicate it altogether; rather keep it, 

 though under curb, for there are times when real abuses arise 

 which require that the man know how to hit and to hit hard. 

 And so with the instincts of self-preservation, of fear, of sex 

 these all have their parts to play in the nobler works of life and 

 are by no means to be eradicated. The ascetic ideal of mortifica- 

 tion of the flesh as a means of grace is fundamentally wrong in 

 principle. Our case calls for no blind, indiscriminate attack 

 upon the world and the flesh, but rather the subjugation and dis- 

 cipline of these, so that we may use them effectively in our attack 

 upon the devil. 



Conflict is inherent in the cosmic process, at least in the bio- 

 logical realm, from beginning to end. There is the struggle for 

 physical existence among the animals. And even in the lower 

 ranks of life there arises also the struggle within the individual 

 between stereotyped innate tendencies or instincts and individu- 

 ally acquired experience. This is clearly shown by experiments 

 on animals as low down as the Protozoa. And out of this inner 

 conflict or dilemma intelligence was born. With the gradual 

 emergence of self-consciousness in this process arises the eternal 

 struggle with self, that conflict which leads to the bitter cry, 

 "When I would do good evil is present with me." Conflict, 

 then, lies at the basis of all evolution, and the factors of social 

 and even of moral evolution can be traced downward throughout 

 the cosmic process. 



The social and ethical standards, therefore, have not arisen 

 in opposition to the evolutionary process as seen in the brute 

 creation, but within that process. And our immediate educa- 

 tional problem is the elaboration of a practicable system of pub- 

 lic instruction which can use to the full the enormous dynamic 

 energy in the hereditary impulsive and instinctive endowment of 

 the child, and build upon this, in the form best suited to the re- 

 spective capacities of all the separate individuals, a properly 

 ordered sequence of studies which will develop the latent capac- 

 ities of each pupil and ensure a vital balance between the strong 



