METHODS OF SCHOLASTIC TEACHING 315 



ence in part by hunting other animals. The instinct to 

 hunt, therefore, was evolved in him. His work was a form of 

 sport, and consequently was delightful, as it remains to the 

 civilized man as delightful as their instinctive activities to 

 lower animals. But later when man discovered other and 

 surer means of gaining subsistence, such as agriculture, he 

 was prompted to exertion by no instinct, but only by intel- 

 ligence. In labour, therefore, apart from the chase, man feels 

 no instinctive delight. He works only because he must, or 

 because he acquires a love for work through interest in its 

 results. 



496. As civilization advanced, the divorce of labour from 

 instinct became ever more complete. It would be difficult 

 to devise anything more entirely opposed to the child's 

 instincts than much of the school-room education of highly 

 civilized races. Probably no child can be otherwise than 

 somewhat miserable when at his lessons ; at any rate, he is 

 not so happy as when pursuing his instinctive sports. But 

 there are degrees of misery. The child's instincts of curiosity 

 and imitativeness remain as aids to his teacher. If by means 

 of them he can arouse his pupil's interest, his own task will 

 be rendered easier and the child's lot less unhappy. Work 

 will then become in some measure a form of play. In some 

 measure it will be founded on instinctive activity. 



497. The formal or scholastic education of children has 

 undoubtedly improved, especially of late years, in many 

 civilized communities. Formerly, particularly during the 

 Dark Ages, it consisted mainly of a cramming of the letters 

 of the alphabet in their assigned order, followed by a cram- 

 ming of one, perhaps two, dead languages. Concurrently 

 the child was crammed with the "mysteries" of religion. 

 From first to last his memory was outrageously taxed, while 

 his intelligence, his thinking power, was allowed to lie fallow, 

 or positively injured. This system of education was funda- 

 mentally similar to that which now obtains in China, and 

 even more closely resembled that followed by the Hindoos 

 who have Sanscrit for a dead language. Where no other 

 form of scholastic instruction is given concurrently it is 

 invariably associated with a stagnant civilization, in which 

 literary education is practically limited to the wealthy and 

 priestly classes, and literary production is small in quantity and 

 poor in quality as in contemporary Asia or mediaeval Europe. 



498. In England the improvement has affected especially 

 the working classes. Until lately, indeed, they had no 

 school-room education. To-day trained teachers instruct the 



