56 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Much more, however, is meant by the gratification of the self-activity 

 of the learner. That expression points to the acquiring of knowledge, 

 as little as possible by direct communication, and as much as possible 

 by the mind's own exertion in working it out from the raw materials. 

 We are to place the pupil as nearly as may be in the track of the first 

 discoverer, and thus impart the stimulus of invention, with the accom- 

 panying outburst of self-gratulation and triumph. This bold fiction is 

 sometimes put forward as one of the regular arts of the teacher ; but I 

 should prefer to consider it as an extraordinary device admissible only 

 on peculiar occasions. 



It is an obvious defect in teaching to keep continually lecturing 

 pupils, without asking them in turn to reproduce and apply what is 

 said. This is no doubt a sin against the pupil's self-activity, but rather 

 in the manner than in the fact. Listening and imbibing constitute a 

 mode of activity ; only it may be overdone in being out of proportion 

 to the other exercises requisite for fixing our knowledge. When these 

 other activities are fairly plied, the pupil may have a certain complacent 

 satisfaction in his or her own efficiency as a learner, and this is a fair 

 and legitimate reward to an apt pupil. It does not assume any inde- 

 pendent self-sufficiency ; it merely supposes an adequate comprehension 

 and a faithful reproduction of the knowledge communicated. The 

 praise or approbation of the master, and of others interested, is a 

 superadded reward. 



Notwithstanding, there still remains, if we could command it, a ten- 

 fold power in the feeling of origination, invention, or creation ; but as 

 this can hardly ever be actual, the suggestion is to give it in fiction or 

 imagination. Now, it is one of the delicate arts of an accomplished 

 instructor to lay before his pupils a set of facts pointing to a conclu- 

 sion, and leave them to draw the conclusion for themselves. Exactly 

 to hit the mean between a leap too small to have any merit, and one 

 too wide for the ordinary pupil, is a fine adjustment and a great success. 

 All this, however, belongs to the occasional luxuries, the honhons, of 

 teaching, and cannot be included under the daily routine. 



It is to be borne in mind that although the pride of origination is a 

 motive of extraordinary power, and in some minds surpasses every 

 other motive, and has a great charm even in a fictitious example, yet it 

 is not in all minds the only extraneous motive that may aid the teacher. 

 There is a counter-motive of sympathy, affection, and admiration, for 

 superior wisdom, that operates in the other direction ; giving a zest in 

 receiving and imbibing to the letter what is imparted, and jealously re- 

 straining any independent exercise of judgment such as would share 

 the credit with the instructor. This tendency is no doubt liable to run 

 into slavishness, and to favor the perpetuation of error and the stagna- 

 tion of the human mind ; but a certain measure of it is only becoming 

 the attitude of a learner. It accompanies a proper sense of what is the 

 fact, namely, that the learner is a learner, and not a teacher or a discov- 



