226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the constitutive fibers of civilization, and would have them wrought 

 into every young man or woman who might seek an education. Nev- 

 ertheless — and this is the point of all our urging — true reform in edu- 

 cation can not be found on this path. Agreement as to the subject- 

 matter of study is an impossibility. All judgment on this point roots 

 itself in the constitution of the individual, and, while many may agree 

 that the topics named above compass the circle of being, they will not 

 agree as to the desirability, much less the necessity, of demanding years 

 of toil in such topics from each young man and woman. Professor 

 Howison believes that "thoughtful and competent judges — outside of 

 the Harvard circle — will stand by the plainly reasonable conviction 

 that there is a sum of knowledge touched with sentiment, and invig- 

 orated by masterly grasp, the lack of which demonstrates the lack of 

 a truly cultivated mind." This is most admirable. But who are the 

 thoughtful and competent judges ? And, when they have been found, 

 who shall assure us that their curriculum will be that of Professor 

 Howison ? From the nature of human nature there can not be such 

 agreement. Individuality is as much a constitutive fact of each 

 human being as is the trait which he shows in common with his 

 fellows. This individuality, representing his inheritance, his child- 

 hood, his training by environment, will assert itself. And this means 

 nothing more or less than that he, the given person, will go out toward 

 certain subjects and withdraw from others. Force him to study Latin 

 and Greek, or mathematics and physics, even through the college 

 course, and you may do him irreparable harm. At all events, there is 

 here an open question. The writer believes it will remain an open 

 question until the time of the perfect psychology. Meanwhile the 

 course of education can be advanced, and that on another line. This 

 is the line of better teaching. One of the most important truths con- 

 tained in Mr. Spencer's treatise is found, as I think, in the following 

 paragraph : " A branch of knowledge which, as commonly taught, is 

 dry and even repulsive, may, by following the method of Nature, be 

 made extremely interesting and profoundly beneficial. We say pro- 

 foundly beneficial, because the effects are not confined to the gaining 

 of facts, but often revolutionize the whole state of mind." A more 

 pregnant sentence with regard to education can not be found. To 

 follow the method of Nature in teaching a given subject means to 

 recognize the special character of the subject itself, and at the same 

 lime to discern its natural place in the unfolding being of the pupil. 

 The first secures the organic presentation of the subject per se, the 

 second finds in the pupil a natural — i. e., a constitutive — response to 

 the matter as developed. The business of teaching is to establish re- 

 lations, not to communicate facts ; these relations are between the 

 being of the pupil and subject studied. That there are, for all sub- 

 jects, such relations, that these relations are, in all cases, natural, 

 must be the guiding conviction with every teacher. Instead, then, of 



