LEARN AND SEARCH. 451 



the student presses into the comprehension of the inner processes, 

 and learns not only to estimate the measure of the living forces 

 but also to calculate them in advance, in order afterward to ad- 

 just the practical using of them. 



Arithmetic alone is not enough ; thought is also necessary to 

 comprehension. Many conceive that it is not necessary to make 

 thought itself an object of learning ; but there can not be success 

 without methodical thinking. Unfortunately, logic is one of the 

 studies that has almost been forgotten. At most of the schools 

 one is supposed to have done enough if he occasionally expresses 

 a logical theorem. How can one pursue psychology who has 

 never become acquainted with the laws of thought ? How can 

 the complicated conditions of mental life be made perceptible to 

 the outward view ? The young doctor is a little more favorably 

 situated in respect to this matter ; but what can be expected of 

 the jurist, the theologian, and the pedagogue ? Respect for phi- 

 losophy is already, at least, cultivated ; that is much. The dis- 

 position to learn to think philosophically will then easily be 

 yielded to. 



And now, finally, the natural sciences. What profitable objects 

 for learning and teaching do the descriptive sciences botany, 

 geology, and mineralogy afford ! It is a mistake to suppose that 

 university teachers lay most weight on systematic knowledge. 

 Not at all. The systematic method, it is true, is learned at the 

 universities. It does no one harm to be able to learn and distin- 

 guish a certain number of plants, animals, or stones. But the 

 instruction proper should consist in the training of the senses, 

 especially of the sight and feeling. At present we have to lament 

 that a large part of our students have 110 exact knowledge of 

 colors, that they make false estimates of the forms of the objects 

 they see, and they manifest no comprehension of the consistence 

 and exterior constitution of bodies. Nothing should be easier 

 than to cultivate an accurate judgment concerning color and 

 form, if besides the comprehension of the body the representation 

 of it by a simple or colored drawing, though it were only a sketch, 

 were learned. Every one can make such knowledge useful. It is 

 of great value to medical men, for diagnoses of the most impor- 

 tant conditions are not rarely dependent upon it. 



The experimental sciences, especially physics and chemistry, 

 are also indispensable in school instruction, because more than all 

 other branches they lead to the knowledge of the genetic and 

 causal connection of the processes, and prepare for the methodical 

 consideration of the more difficult problems of biology. It is evi- 

 dent that so long as general preparation for academical studies 

 alone is considered/only the simpler and more easily understood 

 experiments can be dealt with in them. But every pupil who 



