EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 395 



where, how, and wliy, we are wrong, is the teacher's most indispen- 

 sable function. 



3. The only mode of arriving at a new constructive combination is 

 to try and try again. The will initiates some movements ; these are 

 found not to answer, and are suppressed ; others are tried, and so on, 

 until the requisite combination has been struck out. The way to new 

 powers is by trial and error. According as the first and second con- 

 ditions above given are realized, the unsuccessful trials are fewer. If 

 we have been well led up to the combination required, and if we have 

 before us a very clear idea of what is to be done, we do not need 

 many tentatives; the prompt suppression of the wrong movements 

 ultimately lands us in the right. 



The mastei-ing of a new manual combination as in writing, in 

 learning to swim, in the mechanical arts is a very trying moment 

 to the human powers; success involves all those favorable circum- 

 stances indicated in discussing the retentive or receptive faculty. 

 Vigor, freshness, freedom from distraction, no strong or extraneous 

 emotions, motives to succeed are all most desirable in realizing a 

 difficult combination. Fatigue, fear, flurry, or other w^asting excite- 

 ment, does away with the chances of success. 



Very often we have to give up the attempt for a time ; yet the 

 ineffectual struggles are not entirely lost. We have at least learned 

 to avoid a certain number of positions, and have narrowed the round 

 of tentatives for the next occasion. If, after two or three repetitions, 

 with rest-intervals, the desired combination does not emerge, it is 

 a proof that some preparatory movement is wanting, and we should 

 be made to retrace the approaches. Perhaps we may have learned 

 the prerequisite movements in a way, but not with sufficient firmness 

 and certainty for securing their being performed in combination. 



Alternation^ and Remission of Activity. In the accustomed 

 routine of education, a number of separate studies and acquirements 

 are prosecuted together ; so that, for each day, a pupil may have to 

 engage in as many as three, four, or more, different kinds of lessons. 



The principles that guide the alternation and remission of our modes 

 of exercise and application are apparently these : 



1. Sleep is the only entire and absolute cessation of the mental 

 and bodily expenditure ; and perfect or dreamless sleep is the greatest 

 cessation of all. Whatever shortens the due allowance of sleep, renders 

 it fitful and disturbed, or promotes dreaming, is so much force wasted. 



In the waking hours, there may be cessation from a given exer- 

 cise, with more or less of inaction over the whole system. The greatest 

 diversion of the working forces is made by our meals ; during these 

 the trains of thought are changed, while the body is rested. 



Bodily or muscular exercise, when alternated with sedentary men- 

 tal labor, is really a mode of remission accompanied with an expendi- 

 ture requisite to redress the balance of the physical functions. The 



