OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 219 



Education," Mr. Spencer presents a series of contrasts between past 

 and present education. From an extreme in physical education fol- 

 lowed an extreme in mental education — we are now learning the value 

 of being good animals. Learning by rote or memory is passing away. 

 Learning by rules is disappearing. From this has resulted the post- 

 ponement of once earlier studies to a later time. This also is decidedly 

 by way of contrast. We have reached object -teaching or culture 

 through observation. Again, we present truths in the concrete, not in 

 the abstract. The seventh and last contrast is shown by the desire 

 we manifest to make all acquirement of knowledge pleasurable. Mr. 

 Spencer calls attention to the common characteristic of these con- 

 trasts, viz., an increasing conformity to the methods of Nature. This 

 leads to Pestalozzi's teaching that education must adapt itself to the 

 natural process of mental evolution. After these special considera- 

 tions, Mr. Spencer announces certain principles which may serve as 

 guides in the matter of intellectual education until the establishment 

 of a rational psychology. " Proceed from the simple to the complex- 

 Begin in the concrete and end in the abstract. Education must ac- 

 cord, both in mode and arrangement, with the education of mankind 

 considered historically. Education should proceed from the empirical 

 to the rational. Self-development should be encouraged to the fullest 

 extent. The method of instruction should create pleasurable excite- 

 ment." 



Education is to provide for man as a threefold being. The intel- 

 lect must work upon all the material offered for development, must 

 convert this material into organized knowledge. We now reach a 

 subject that has been thought by almost all educators to present the 

 question of questions, viz., "What subject-matter is best adapted to un- 

 fold the complex nature of man ? While I regard the high impor- 

 tance thus attached to this question as entirely beside the mark and a 

 serious hindrance, I know that the matter can not be ignored. On 

 all hands people seem constrained to reform education by determining 

 what shall be taught. Let us note, for a moment, the forms of intel- 

 lectual activity engaged in the acquisition of organized knowledge. 

 These may be phrased as discrimination, detection of identity, and 

 reproduction, both direct and creative. For the natural, proper action 

 of these powers, the material is a matter of comparative indifference. 

 I can analyze, synthesize, and remember, whether I deal with Latin, 

 Greek, mathematics, chemistry, literature, or strictly speculative phi- 

 losophy. That department which presents the largest number of facts, 

 best classified, will offer most opportunity for the action of the intel- 

 lect. In all effort to educate, therefore, we should present that branch 

 or those branches only which contain the most facts in the best order. 



There was a time when it might have been fairly said that the 

 classiccd languages alone met the necessity just indicated. After 

 middle-age scholasticism had worn out the patience of men, and be- 



