414 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



The doctrine of mental limitations, which we thus find 

 grounded in the organic constitution, puts the philosophy 

 of education at once on the basis of the economy of mental 

 power. The student is constantly told that his time is 

 limited, and exhorted not to waste it ; but his forces of 

 acquisition are equally limited, and it becomes a question 

 of still higher importance how to economize these, for it 

 is possible sedulously to save the moments while squander- 

 ing half the energies of the mind in bad application. Ob- 

 viously if intellectual power has its fixed bounds, the su- 

 preme question is, How can the highest results be attained 

 within those bounds ? 



Nature's method of economizing power is by repetition 

 of actions in constantly varying conditions. The celestial 

 order is maintained by endless repetition of axial and or- 

 bital revolutions. The operations of the world are carried 

 on by using over and over again the same stock of re- 

 sources ; matter and force circle round and round through 

 the mineral, vegetable, and animal phases ; in the growing 

 plant leaves undergo constant transformation into other 

 organs, while the animal skull is formed of modified ver- 

 tebral spines. And so in the unfoldings of the mental 

 world, Nature is constantly falling back upon old acquisi- 

 tions, and using them to produce new effects. In the pro- 

 cess of acquirement, ideas and aptitudes once mastered are 

 constantly wrought into higher and more complex combi- 

 nations. The organ of thought being a vast reduplication 

 of the same simple elements, the growth of thought results 

 from an endless repetition of the same simple operations. 



The child, through numberless repetitions of effort, at 

 length gets the aptitude of using its hands for ordinary 

 purposes. But this faculty once secured, serves for life in 

 all the ordinary emergencies of action. The necessity for 

 new and varied movements involves no new acquisitions; 

 within the range of ordinary activity the early aptitudes 



