754: PL'OCBEDINGS OF SECTIOX J. 



one of these lessons, '' Stories about wolves make a little child 

 nervous in the dark." They arouse the undesirable emotion of fear, 

 and tend to the inculcation of cowardice. 



This criticism will not be considered trivial when we remember 

 that there is only a limited amount of nervous energy stored up in any 

 individual. If that energy is expended in calling into force an 

 emotion which is useless or harmful to the organism, there is a 

 correspondingly smaller amount of energy which can be used to bring 

 into activity emotions which would be beneficial to the individual 

 himself, and to the society in which he lives. 



Object lessons again are channels through which the young 

 receive ethical or unethical stimuli. Let us take an example: Two 

 teachers are giving a lesson on an egg to classes of small children. 

 They will each begin with the form and structure of the egg. Then 

 one teacher will pass on the uses of an egg. That is, to the use- 

 fulness of the egg to man. We eat eggs; they are boiled, fried, put 

 into puddings and cakes. The other teacher ignoring the culinary 

 value of eggs, passes from a consideration of their form to a 

 consideration of their life history; and unfolds before the children 

 a chapter in biology more wonderful than any tale of fairy or 

 wizard. The young imaginations revel in this magic story of trans- 

 formations, and a tender emotion towards bird life springs up in 

 every child mind. Two psychological effects have been obtained. In 

 the tirst place the stress laid upon, the use we make of eggs is a direct 

 appeal to the strongest form of child selfishness — namely, that 

 which has to do with gastric activities. And the psychological 

 result of such a lesson must be to streng-then the egoistic emotions 

 which would regard every phenomena from the vulgar standpoint 

 of personal advantage — emotions which inevitably tend towards 

 selfishness and cruelty. In the second lesson an interest has been 

 awakened in a form of life which differs from the human form, and 

 that interest is quite independent of any advantage man may derive 

 from bird life; it is, indeed, the sympathetic result of perceiving the 

 beauty of these little creatures' lives. Little children are naturally 

 very self-centred, and eveiy time their interest is fixed upon some- 

 thing outside themselves this self-centred mental condition is 

 weakened. In other words their natural selfishness is repi'essed, and 

 a stimulus is given to altruistic rather than to egoistic emotions. 

 Ethically tliis second lesson is a good one. 



The practical use of eggs comes fittingly in a lesson on cookery 

 or domestic economy. Then the child's intelligence is engaged in 

 learning something which will be useful at home, and the emotions 

 are correspondingly healthily exercised. 



As everything which enters into a child's environment tells for 

 or against a proper training of the imagination, and consequently 

 emotions, stoiy books are of great importance. Let us notice their 

 influence upon the growing mind. An intelligent child of six years, 

 alert and eager to know life, receives a volume of fairy tales. It is 

 highly coloured and grossly sensational. Here for the first time 

 he meets with Bluebeard, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack and the Bean- 

 stalk, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. He is thrown into a world 

 of wonders far removed from the scenes of actual life — giants and 



