PRINCIPLES DETERMINING METHOD. 147 



diate aims to. the higher ultimate aim. If she can see 

 little farther than the examination, she will find little 

 place for nature study, and have little use for method. 

 Her method will be a process of " cramming." If she 

 thinks mainly or only of developing the intellectual pow- 

 ers of her pupils, that is, the powers of observation, 

 expression, and thought, she will understand the use- 

 lessness of "cramming." She will insist on individual 

 work, individual seeing and thinking and telling, but 

 will neglect the highest aspects or content of nature 

 study. Her method will be rigidly scientific. If she 

 thinks only of preparing her pupils for practical life, 

 of fitting them to earn their bread and butter, she will 

 dwell on the economic relations of what she studies 

 with her boys and girls. If she keeps ever before her 

 the ultimate aim, the fitting and training of the chil- 

 dren for the best possible relations with all their envi- 

 ronment, nature, man, and God, she will find time and 

 place in her plan of work for that which will appeal to 

 and develop the higher nature of her pupils, as well as 

 for that through which they may gain useful knowledge 

 and develop power. 



It is important that the pupil, as well as the teacher, 

 have a definite aim. His aim may be immediate and 

 narrow, while the teacher sees the higher aims ; but, in 

 general, the pupil will do definite work in proportion * 

 as he realizes a definite aim. The pupil who does not 

 know the aim, is like the child who is taken out for a 

 walk without any objective point. Both wander about 

 aimlessly. The pupil who, at the beginning of the 



