1338 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



education, though these doubtless shade into one another. Nowa- 

 days the three R's are viewed as primarily utilitarian ; mathematics 

 is our finest of mental gymastics; history is a supreme diet. Reading, 

 WTiting, and arithmetic, biologically regarded, are keys now neces- 

 sary for getting at the racial heritage, tools needed in the bag of 

 every respectable citizen. It will be granted that they may rise into 

 art, as writing into drawing, reading into pageant and play. But 

 beyond and before these, childhood needs the active, free, and full 

 education of the senses, the play-exercise of the bodily powers. 

 With these, too, is needed the fuller education of the hand — most 

 vital and educative of organs, and with this that recapitulation of 

 occupations in which children so delight, and instinctively turn to 

 play. Yet this is truly utilitarian also. Thus the young otter learns 

 to catch trout. 



A second aspect of education from the fully biological (bio- 

 psychological) point of view is to supply Qot only bodily but mental 

 gymnastics, as did the Greeks of old. Here the aim is above all 

 brain-stretching; and the particular method employed has to 

 depend on the teacher's own stretch. Each method leads to some 

 precision, some fineness of edge, some intellectual resoluteness, and 

 some emancipation from what may be called the tyrannj^ of the 

 ancestral minds that lurk within us and keep us so often from 

 having minds of our own. Even arithmetic, and far further, mathe- 

 matics, are good brain-stretchers; but, this cannot as j^et always 

 be said of either natural or civil history. Many a teacher has done 

 best with Latin prose ; yet surely still better with Greek poetry and 

 drama, while even the philosopher — witness vSocrates — has a word 

 for the child, though the Book of Proverbs has more. Some teachers 

 tell us that is best which the pupils dislike most; but the element 

 of truth in this needs many grains of salt withal. Yet why only this 

 or that discipline, too much taken alone? 



This brings us to a further side of education — mental equipment ; 

 what is often called the furnishing of the mind; not with mere static 

 information, but with idea-seeds, that — with richly formative soil 

 and evocator}^ encouragement of sunshine — will develop roots, 

 shoots, and leaves, even flowers and fruits. What kinds of living 

 knowledge are most essential? Surely something of all; yet the sad 

 answer is — those that are most conspicuously absent in most of our 

 youth leaving school to-day. 



This child organism we are so interested in setting forth on the 

 voyage of life; it can learn much by the way; vivendo discimus. Yet 

 how is it to be best equipped? On this point, as we know — many 

 men, many minds — qiiot homines, tot sententica; yet to the biologist 

 it seems clear that Nature and Civilisation afford the great aspects 

 of life, essentials by which all our studies are organised, aU our 

 interests are concentrated. Uniting these, hence oftenest interesting 



