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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



start without fastening him. They had pro- 

 ceeded a number of miles on their journey 

 when they came to a place where two roads 

 diverged. There at the fork of the roads 

 sat Dick, serenely waiting to find which road 

 to take. You may be sui-e he was not sent 

 back. 



Is it not certain that these dogs must 



have reasoned, and if they reasoned, is it not 

 logical to conclude that dogs have a mind ; 

 then, if they have a mind, is this mind not 

 immortal ? Any child may ask these ques- 

 tions, but what child or philosopher will give 

 them a satisfactory answer? 



Helen Blackmer Poole. 

 SPBENGriBLD, Mass., January 19, 1894. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF EDUCATION. 



THE article from the pen of Prof. 

 C. Hanford Henderson, which ap- 

 peared in our last number under the title 

 of Cause and Etfect in Education, is one 

 deserving of more than passing atten- 

 tion. The point he sought to make was 

 that education as an art can hardly be 

 said as yet to have entered on its scien- 

 tific stage, seeing that it is still haunted 

 by so many unverified a priori concep- 

 tions, and that the true limits and con- 

 ditions of successful working are still far 

 from being generally understood. The 

 general subject is one which has been 

 very often discussed in these columns, 

 but it is also one on which there always 

 seems to be another word to say. 



Education, from one point of view, 

 is a debt whicli the adult generation 

 owes to that which is to succeed it. This 

 civilization to which we have attained, 

 these general ideas, these intellectual 

 resources, these moral principles, these 

 habits and customs of proved utility 

 how are tliey to be passed on to those who 

 are to succeed us ? By education that 

 is to say, by mental contact and moral 

 sympathy between those who know and 

 those who as yet do not know. That is 

 the problem in its most general aspect. 

 Here we may make two reasonable as- 

 sumptions ; the first, that all we have 

 learned the rising generation may also 

 learn ; the second, that possibly, nay 

 probably, it is not worth the while of 

 the rising generation to learn all that 

 we have learned. We can not teach our 



children more than we know, but we 

 can teach them less than we know, and 

 so leave room for their own independent 

 acquisitions. It behooves us, therefore, 

 to sift our knowledge and whatever else 

 we have to impart, and consider very 

 carefully what is worth passing on and 

 what is not. Much good, we believe, 

 would come from a serious and earnest 

 facing of this question, What should I 

 teach or have taught to my child in its 

 own best interest? Things which we 

 ourselves have learned, perhaps with 

 considerable elfort or at considerable 

 cost in other ways, we are apt to attach 

 a fictitious value to, simply because they 

 have cost us dear ; but the spirit of vir- 

 tuosity should not enter into education ; 

 let the child become a virtuoso after his 

 own fashion later if circumstances lead 

 him to do so, but meantime let our chief 

 effort be to give him a free and healthy 

 mind in a free and healthy body. 



One thing is certain : every child, 

 every human being, wants the full use of 

 his senses and other natural faculties. 

 Eyes were made to see with, ears to 

 hear with, vocal organs to speak and 

 sing with, and hands to feel with. Any 

 system of education, therefore, that is 

 inspired by true benevolence toward the 

 child will start by taking stock of his 

 natural endowments, so as to correct, 

 as far as possible, any defects that 

 may attach to them and provide for 

 their fullest development. Children are 

 often far from perceiving the benevo- 

 lent intent in the systems of education 



