216 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



speech." Therefore the art of perception must start from this three- 

 fold basis — number, form, and speech. We must teach each object to 

 the children as unity, separated from all with which it may seem to be 

 bound. We must then teach them to observe the form of every object, 

 that is, its measure and relations ; lastly, we must make them acquaint- 

 ed with the entire circle of the words and names for the objects which 

 they know. It would be of little service to follow Pestalozzi further 

 in this direction. The arrangement of natural phenomena under form, 

 word, and number, contains the fatal error of incomplete classification. 

 There can be no question that form and number are modes of things, 

 but this is a seriously inadequate account of Nature's manifestations. 

 The supreme fact which the world teaches, and which thrusts itself upon 

 us every hour of every day, is the fact of causative energy. Nature's 

 great truth is cause and effect. Pestalozzi took little or no account of 

 this, and consequently dealt with the form and number of objects, 

 to an exclusion of the objects themselves. Pestalozzi had no place 

 for chemistry, or physics, or physiology. Here lies the absurdity of 

 object-teaching as often presented. He who fails to see Nature at 

 work misses the organizing principle of her manifestations, and can 

 not teach according to Nature. The principle of object-teaching was 

 fundamental with Pestalozzi. As concerns this distinguishing feature 

 of his thought, we would say that, because perception is the first step 

 in the unfolding consciousness of a child, it does not follow that per- 

 ception should be made supremely -prominent in the education of the 

 child. Were the child to remain a child, we should have regard solely 

 to those things which might exercise his childish faculties. Since the 

 child is to pass from childhood to manhood, it is well to have care lest 

 over-development of the child-method tend to perpetuate a childish 

 habit of mind. 



Pestalozzi distinctly admits that the idea, not the vision, is the dis- 

 tinguishing mark of human reason. He repeatedly says that the child 

 must be brought on to a full possession of the general notion, the con- 

 cept. If, then, Ave make object-teaching, or the gaining of distinet 

 sense-impressions, the exclusive work in all early training, we stand in 

 danger of prolonging this childish state, and of failing to furnish the 

 mind with clear, independent ideas. Directly, or indirectly, the move- 

 ment now under consideration is responsible for one of the greatest evils 

 of our time. I name this the pictorial disease. Everytliing must be 

 depicted. 



Literature, forgetting that grown men and women ought to be able 

 to think, treats them as children, and illustrates. It has come to pass 

 that we can not read a strong article or a strong book. Everything is 

 diluted with pictures. Let me not be misunderstood. True art is the 

 painter's poem — the hero's deed. True art is no illustration, no pict- 

 ure, no copy of Nature. It is Nature herself, as she has taken up her 

 abode in the artist's mind and heart. Here is one who will paint you 



