766 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



men were born and how their names were accented ; and that it 

 is better to go and visit one range of mountains or large city 

 than to learn by staring at a map where all the cities and mount- 

 ains are. 



Our prevailing eye-mindedness is further shown by the readi- 

 ness with which the mind is impressed through the eye, and the 

 ease with which visual images are retained. A teacher, wishing 

 to impress some essential point, illustrates or even writes the 

 same upon the blackboard. A child who has been told a hun- 

 dred times, without result, to correct some fault, finally learns 

 the new way at once when presented to him by sight or touch. 

 In physics, mechanics, and mathematics the so-called "graphic 

 method " is used more and more. When other forms of illus- 

 tration fail, we fall back upon the visible curve. The sociologist 

 lays down his abscissas and ordinates and illustrates to the eye 

 by curves the relation of the increase of crime to the scarcity of 

 corn. Many teachers believe that the pedagogical discovery of 

 our age is that it is easier to impress the mind through the eye 

 than through the ear. This is undoubtedly true, and such teach- 

 ing is successful, if by success is meant the mere imparting of 

 instruction, so that it is understood and retained. In every sub- 

 ject the blackboard is freely used, and in many has become indis- 

 pensable. The old-fashioned mental arithmetic has given place 

 to the so-called " practical " arithmetic, a name which seems to 

 be a misnomer, since the student of it is, for the rest of his life, 

 committed to the use of pencil and paper for any mathematical 

 computation higher than the multiplication table. Grammar 

 even is taught by diagrams, and logic by circles. Blackboards, 

 maps, and charts cover the walls of our school-rooms; globes, 

 figures, models, chemical and physical apparatus, cover the 

 tables. This constant appeal to the eye, prevails not only in our 

 intermediate schools but also in our Kindergartens and in our col- 

 leges. In the former, instruction is by object-lessons. Excepting 

 some exercise in singing, all the instruction is in form and color 

 and in manual training. The student thus trained with respect 

 to his eye and hand from the primary to the high school, selects, 

 when he enters college, subjects for which he is best prepared. 

 These are the material sciences and arts with their experimental 

 laboratories, and their visible and tangible material and appa- 

 ratus. In our colleges and universities, therefore, we notice the 

 yearly increasing prominence given to the material sciences and 

 to branches of technology, and the crowding out of the time-hon- 

 ored humanistic studies. These so-called " liberal arts," studied 

 for subjective culture rather than for objective utilities, have, 

 during the whole history of education, figured as the central and 

 principal group of studies in higher education, and still do so to 



