PRINCIPLES DETERMINING METHOD. 165 



cotton-plant, the cotton-field, and perhaps the cotton- 

 picking. 



As describing or drawing from memory trains the 

 memory, so describing or drawing what the children 

 have read about, or have been told, but have never 

 seen that is, making a conceptional drawing may 

 help in cultivating the imagination. A description by 

 the children of a cotton-field, or a drawing to represent 

 the children's mind picture of the cotton-boll, shows 

 teacher and pupil whether the picture in the mind of 

 the pupil is clear and correct or vague, and tends to 

 develop the power to picture or image or imagine. 



Because the child can most readily imagine that which 

 is most like what he already knows, it is easier for him 

 to gain or form mental pictures of what is alive like 

 himself, and of those things which are considered as 

 having the attributes and relations with which he is 

 familiar in his own life. Hence, as has been said before, 

 it is natural, and often very helpful, for the child to per- 

 sonify ; to endow animals and plants, and even lifeless 

 nature, with human attributes. The more he thinks of 

 them as living, working, helping, dependent, like him- 

 self, the better can he imagine and understand their 

 life. Often he delights in imagining himself to be a 

 leaf or plant or squirrel or raindrop, or in having these 

 tell their own story. 



One of the most effective aids in cultivating the im- 

 agination is literature. On the other hand, one of the 

 main essentials for an appreciation of literature is a 

 vivid imagination. The value of literature, as a means 



