ETHICAL TRAI^'^S*G. 753 



Imagination will play an important part in the training of the 

 emotions. In a young child this faculty is very strong. Through 

 it the latent sympathetic emotions, which are at first dormant, 

 may be awakened and strengthened. These emotions will result in 

 conduct marked by kindness and consideration. Conversely, through 

 the imagination, savage instincts, which, in a young child are easily 

 aroused, may be stimulated, resulting in conduct marked by callous- 

 ness and cruelty. Let us take a concrete example. A class of 

 children are having a first reading lesson ; a primer is put into 

 their hands, and they meet with the picture of a cat springing 

 upon a mouse. The teacher talks to them about the picture, thus 

 arousing their interest in the chase. The writer of this paper has 

 seen a Government Inspector call out two children in order that one, 

 simulating the actions of the cat, should first crouch and then 

 spring upon hi? prey, the prey being represented by the second 

 child. This was done to rouse the '"interest'' of the children in the 

 subject matter of their lesson. At first sight the objection to this 

 may seem a quibble. It may be argued, the cat and mouse incident 

 is a familiar one, and not on account of its cruelty, but on account 

 of its familiarity is it chosen. But Professor Bain, who is no mean 

 authority on this subject, has this remarkable passage in his 

 " Education as a Science," page 224 : — " Predatory pursuit excites 

 from our earliest years; and any interests embodying it will waken 

 up the feelings, and exercise the imagination in a blood-thirsty chase; 

 thus enlivening the dull and dreary exercise of leaniing to read 

 and spell." And he goes on to suggest that a cat's torturing play 

 with a mouse before eating it, is, to the child witness, " one of his 

 rarest treats," and, therefore, because it is blood-thirsty and cruel, 

 he recommends the subject as one suitable to the infant mind- 

 Professor Bain is correct in his statement that such stories will 

 create a lively interest in the child's mind. This is because savage 

 instincts are easily aroused in the young. These emotions were 

 suitable to barbaric social conditions. They are unsuitable to present 

 society, and to introduce them in order to make an effort of the 

 intellect more agreeable is a deliberate sacrifice of the moral 

 nature to intellectual culture. A reading lesson given on scientific 

 lines will not be " dull and dreary." The necessary intellectual 

 eft'ort it calls forth ought to afford pleasure. But granting that 

 learning to read is inevitably "dull and dreary," such a subject as 

 the cat and. her kittens would awaken interest, although of a different 

 kind from that recommended by the Professor. Sympathetic 

 interest will exist between beings having similar experiences. 

 Kittens love to play just as children do ; kittens have a mother to 

 care for them as well as children have. In the first instance a 

 stimulus is given to the bloodthirsty anti-social instincts, which, 

 for the welfare of modern society should be discouraged. In the 

 second an interest in subhuman life is stimulated; and emotions are 

 called forth, which, later on, will tend to the kind treatment of all 

 sentient beings. 



Stories about the fierce camivora, in which their savage traits 

 are portrayed, are ethically unsuitable subjects for children's reading 

 lessons. A little six year old girl said the other day, after reading 



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