276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



be elementary enough, as a mere collection of individual figures and 

 objects. 



The way one expresses himself in pictures or writing, and the way 

 one interprets illustration or text, thus reflects the level of organization 

 which the mind itself has reached. The single figure, the composition, 

 the pictorial series and the textual description mark successive stages in 

 the evolution of representative functions in the individual human mind. 

 The child passes through each of these stages in turn as he advances 

 toward maturity in synthetic thought, and a customary dependence upon 

 any given type fixes the developmental level which has then been 

 reached. 



The aim of education in this regard is to develop in the individual 

 a capacity to represent experience and to express thought adequately 

 through a system of analytic and verbal symbols. It seeks also an ability 

 to translate these symbols fluently into terms of significant thought when 

 they are thus employed by others and to create imaginatively the forms 

 of original experience which they are designed to describe. It marks an 

 arrest of development in the mind not to be thus a master of words, 

 whether in their use or their understanding. To need pictures in order 

 to make the thought plain means either that the writer has not mastered 

 his craft thoroughly and does not know how to use his tools, or that the 

 reader's mind is immature or has momentarily lapsed from the habits 

 which characterize maturity. 



The child's love of pictures obviously persists in adult life; it is 

 eradicated in few, if any, natures and to their distinct loss. We, as well 

 as they, on taking up a book, often look first to see the pictures, and turn 

 to the text only when the illustrations have been explored. The pictures 

 are a mental appetizer which whets our appetite to a keener edge as we 

 approach the solid courses of the printed page. How often, too, when 

 we are tired or disinclined for strenuous mental effort, do we explore the 

 pictures of an illustrated book or magazine, which can be understood 

 and enjoyed without exertion ! It is not only at such moments of intel- 

 lectual idling, however, that we thus turn to pictures in connection with 

 our reading. How often, when a point of difficulty arises do we long for 

 a pictorial representation which would make all plain to us, as by a flash 

 of lightning the dark landscape is revealed at night ! How gratefully do 

 we turn to a satisfactory illustration and find there the realization of our 

 own conception which the artist has made still more rich and splendid by 

 his craft! And when the subject matter is such as to put our logical 

 reflection under severe or continuous strain, how constantly do we have 

 recourse to the device of tabulating or schematizing the substance of dis- 

 cussion in some spatial way that shall present it concretely and visibly ! 



Illustration has thus a distinct and important place in literature. 

 The use of pictures is twofold — they serve understanding and they in- 

 crease enjoyment. In the latter case, however, they are not, in the 



