EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



separation between profession and 

 practice. Profession comes from the 

 region of the conscious, and prac- 

 tice largely from that of the sub- 

 conscious. Of course, many actions, 

 and particularly our most public 

 ones, are dictated by the active con- 

 sciousness; but those that make up 

 the main tissue of our lives have 

 their springs in a deeper region 

 and furnish a better index to our 

 true selves. It is of the highest im- 

 portance, therefore, that the young 

 should not only receive formal in- 

 struction in right principles, but that 

 their habitual surroundings should 

 be such as to promote the general 

 health of the moral and intellectual 

 nature. They should see as little as 

 possible of angry passion, of selfish 

 scheming, of duplicity in any form ; 

 and every effort should be made to 

 lead them to appreciate and enjoy 

 the finer and happier effects of Na- 

 ture and all that is harmonious and 

 elevating in the world of art and of 

 human effort generally. It may be 

 said that this would give them an 

 incorrect idea of the world as it is; 

 but it should be borne in mind that 

 the object is to make the world other 

 than it is — to make men and wom- 

 en more humane, more reasonable, 

 more equitable, to endow them with 

 more correct perceptions in all mat- 

 ters of taste, and fit them for a high- 

 er plane of social life. If we were 

 to proceed upon the assumption that 

 the world is incapable of amend- 

 ment, and that the only thing is to 

 make ourselves at home in it exactly 

 as it is, there would be an end to all 

 progress in education. 



There are some good remarks in 

 Dr. Waldstein's book about the dan- 

 ger of crowding too much into con- 



sciousness and so impairing the sub- 

 conscious receptivity of the whole 

 nature. We have all heard of prodi- 

 gies at school who have turned out 

 very dull men in after life. As 

 long as it was a question of absorb- 

 ing the formal instruction imparted 

 by masters, such individuals were 

 far to the front ; but afterward, when 

 it came to be a question of individual 

 resource, of energy, initiative, origi- 

 nality, they relapsed into quite a 

 commonplace if not inferior posi- 

 tion. It is very undesirable that 

 anybody should be all conscious- 

 ness. It is Shakespeare who says : 



" If springing things be any jot diminished, 

 They wither in their prime, prove nothing 

 worth." 



In our schools many a " springing 

 thing" is thus " diminished " through 

 the very forcing which seems at 

 the time to produce so great an en- 

 largement of mental faculty. The 

 careful educator should be constant- 

 ly asking himself the question, Is the 

 mind before me getting into contact 

 with things f and his chief effort 

 should be to establish and promote 

 this contact, so that the mind may 

 draw instruction from its surround- 

 ings as a plant derives nourishment 

 from the soil. There is nothing abso- 

 lutely new in Dr. Waldstein's views, 

 because ages ago men recognized the 

 comparative futility of brilliant fac- 

 ulties unsupported by solid qualities 

 of mind and character; but he has 

 brought forward what he has to say 

 at a very good moment, when, al- 

 most more than ever, we need the 

 quiet teachings of Nature to curb 

 our mental restlessness and enable 

 us to "see things steadily and see 

 them whole." 



