NATURAL OR SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN EDUCATION. 15 



other young animals. Each is a vegetative, reflex, receptive or- 

 ganism. The brain of the infant grows rapidly within the first 

 few months. It no doubt develops equally fast. Already used 

 groups of cells learn to function more perfectly, and new groups 

 take up their duties. Movements become gradually more and 

 more voluntary, more under control, and more definite. Sensory 

 impressions become more and more clearly sensory judgments. 

 To illustrate : The lamp that excited the young infant represents 

 after a few months not merely brightness but an object of definite 

 size and shape, owing to the additions and corrections following 

 from a combined use of the senses. And this process will con- 

 tinue throughout life if not checked. 



Both common observation and the closest scientific study have 

 made it plain that youth is the period of sense ascendency. From 



Fig. 4. — Diagrammatic Eepeesentation to illustrate the Reflex Arc (Bramwell and 

 Ranney). 1, 2, sensory fibers ; 3, motor cell of anterior horn ; 4, motor fiber connected 

 with 3 and passing out by anterior root of muscle ; 5, fiber joining ganglionic cell (3) with 

 crossed pyramidal tract, C. P. C. ; 6, ganglion on root of posterior spinal nerve ; 7, fiber 

 joining 3 with Tiirck's column, T. Fiber 2 is represented as passing through Burdach's 

 column to reach the cell, 3. 



this, most important conclusions follow, which we can not ignore 

 without paying a heavy penalty. Attention has been called to 

 the infant in order to show that, prior to all school education, 

 Nature asserts herself and points the way in which the human 

 brain and mind develop. Any education that overlooks these 

 facts is directly against the organization we possess, and must 

 be more or less of a failure. How far our methods have been 

 and are in harmony with them I shall presently attempt to show. 

 For the moment let me follow the child out of the stage of 

 infancy into that of school age. The boy of five, let us suppose, 

 is sent to school a perfect stranger to books and the usual educa- 

 tional equipment. Everything on the road to school attracts him 

 to such an extent that likely enough he may arrive late. When 



