OF EDUCATION 93 



can do nothing without the consent of the public, and 

 the public can overturn his work at pleasure, even 

 just as he is ready to demonstrate its value. With 

 every new victory the progress of science is acceler- 

 ated ; but the power that crushes truth to earth 

 shackles itself. 



It will be the object of the next few paragraphs to 

 give a brief outline of the course clearly indicated by 

 the educational science of the present time. 



True education is as many sided as the mind that 

 is to receive it ; and the mind is as many sided as the 

 sum total of human knowledge. In education there 

 can be but one true method, and that method coin- 

 cides with nature's tendencies and guides the mind 

 in accordance with the law of its spontaneous 

 evolution. 



In the study of the laws of mental development our 

 success must be limited, unless we get at the general 

 law of life by studying the simpler forms of living 

 things. There is one law of development : it begins 

 in the lowest forms of plant life and ends in the phy- 

 sical and mental development of man, becoming 

 more and more complex as it ascends into higher 

 orders of plant and animal life. Nothing in nature 

 stands solitary and alone. Every part of the world 

 is interlaced with every other part, and is more or 

 less dependent upon every other part. Man himself 



