66 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stand pre-eminently above any other series yet published. The 

 little book exemplifies most thoroughly the principle of appercep- 

 tion. Its exercises are very carefully graded. The steps are for 

 the most part just diflficult enough, so that the pupil is able, by 

 using the ideas he has already gained, and the power he has ac- 

 quired in gaining those ideas, to solve the next step. The book 

 is based upon the heuristic or inventive method of teaching, and 

 is a remarkable example of this. These factors unquestionably 

 contribute much to the delight which pupils find in this study. 

 But these factors, valuable as they are, are not sufficient to ac- 

 count for the command which pupils possess over the knowledge 

 gained and their power to revive that knowledge and use it, as 

 well as to find interest in it long after they have passed their 

 examinations and have laid the study aside. There is another 

 potent factor assisting these. The exercises call into use a very 

 important part of the motor side. The pupil is continually busy 

 with his hands as he brings into requisition ruler, compasses, 

 pencil, pen, etc. The hands and the eye work in harmonious con- 

 junction, and thus important motor elements become constituent 

 parts of the notions and judgments acquired. An augmented 

 power of perception, and consequently greater stimulation, re- 

 sults, and because of this the pupil produces forms which would 

 not be produced if he studied printed diagrams and tried to build 

 these up in imagination. Accordingly, his judgments of the re- 

 lations of lines, angles, surfaces, planes, solids, and areas are mul- 

 tiplied to an enormous extent. 



The last application I shall point out is in a branch of study 

 where the employment of the motor side would be least thought 

 of, and where it would lessen the burdens of pupils and preclude 

 the discomfiture of teachers. The branch of study referred to is 

 that of modern languages. Books are the repositories of knowl- 

 edge, we have been told, but that is no reason why the pupil should 

 begin and end his acquirement of a modern language by closely 

 adhering to the pages of a text-book. I trust the reader will not 

 misinterpret me. I do not wish to abolish text-books. I would 

 not, however, by their use hold the child down to one narrow 

 avenue of acquirement. The printed page is greatly like a photo- 

 graph it gives but one point of view. It must, however, be con- 

 ceded in this connection that there are a few, a very small per- 

 centage, of those who enter upon the study of a foreign language 

 that apparently get on easily with acquirement from the printed 

 page. Most teachers of the languages doubtless belong to this 

 class, but that is no reason why the method by which they learned 

 should hold sway. The fact is that a large majority of students 

 do find this way of acquirement very hard, and many become dis- 

 couraged and give up effort. I think it will be conceded that the 



