THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



relations of things — in other words, 

 treating something or other as if it 

 stood apart, in no kind of dependence 

 on anything else. How many such 

 acts would be avoided by the simple 

 reflection that such and such a thing 

 must have had a cause, or that it is sure 

 to have a consequence ! How many, by 

 no more profound or acute exercise of 

 thought than is involved in recognizing 

 that a thing can not both be and not be 

 at the same time! How many, by some 

 simple consideration of time, place, or 

 quantity ! How many, by a mere ques- 

 tion as to the meaning of a word I 



One of the main points in education, 

 therefore, ought to be, as it seems to us, 

 to form the habit of treating everything 

 as the possible subject of a great number 

 of questions, some of which at least must 

 be asked and answered before the thing 

 can be, in any true sense, understood. 

 Habit is everything, and if the habit of 

 asking questions, arranged under certain 

 categories, could once be formed, the 

 victory of intelligence over mental iner- 

 tia would be secured. It is probable 

 that not a little harm is done in the 

 education of the young by unduly ap- 

 pealing to the sense of wonder. Wonder 

 is essentially a stupid emotion ; it cer- 

 tainly is the one that stupid people are 

 most eager to gratify. The object of 

 wonder stands alone, challenging atten- 

 tion as being something out of the ordi- 

 nary course of things. But just in pro- 

 portion as wonder is excited is rational 

 inquiry discouraged. People do not 

 want to have the marvelous so explained 

 as to bring it into the category of nat- 

 ural and necessary phenomena. From 

 the days of Anaxagoras, who got into 

 trouble for propounding a physical the- 

 ory of the sun, down to our own time, 

 men have resented explanations of what 

 they have chosen to consider beyond or 

 above explanation. In lieu of wonder, 

 however, we may very usefully stimu- 

 late curiosity ; and this may be done in 

 a general way by representing every- 

 thing as leading us on, if properly con- 



sidered, to views and truths beyond it- 

 self — as having its own "aura," as the 

 physicists sometimes say, of force or in- 

 fluence, and certain related objects with 

 which it maintains constant commimi- 

 cation. 



The successful teacher will be he 

 who, whatever his subject may be, 

 knows best how to present things in 

 their relations; who deals not with un- 

 connected units, but with the vitally 

 connected parts of some organic system 

 of knowledge ; and who himself is pene- 

 trated by a sense of the interdependence 

 of the truths or propositions that form 

 the matter of his teaching. It ought 

 to be possible to make all instruction 

 subserve the purpose of stimulating 

 thought, of giving to every mind a free 

 activity of its own. The thinking that 

 is required for an intelligent direction 

 of the ordinary concerns of life is not 

 abstruse thinking ; it is, on the contrary, 

 in nine cases out of ten, if not in a much 

 larger proportion still, essentially com- 

 monplace thinking. We hear from 

 time to time much foolish disparage- 

 ment of theory as opposed to practice ; 

 but there is just this much foundation 

 for the popular prejudice on the sub- 

 ject, that brilliant theoricians are occa- 

 sionally apt to overlook the simpler 

 and more ordinary aspects of the mat- 

 ters with which they deal ; while plain, 

 plodding men, if intent on business, will 

 at least guard the points that most com- 

 monly present themselves, and will thus, 

 in the majority of cases, bring things 

 to a successful issue. Educational effort 

 should be most distinctly bent upon 

 giving every human being the habit of 

 asking questions as a preparation for 

 action. The questions need not in most 

 cases be asked of others : it is often 

 enough to raise and distinctly face them ; 

 then the answer comes of itself. We 

 have had too many examinations in 

 which the mind is put to a strain, and 

 too little work of the kind involving no 

 strain, but simply tending to keep the 

 mind in a healthy condition of activity 



