CAUSE AND EFFECT IN EDUCATION. 51 



CAUSE AND EFFECT IN EDUCATION. 



BY C. HANFORD HENDERSON, 



PRINCIPAL OF THE NORTHEAST MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA. 



I DO not know when the intellectual life is born. If we consult 

 pur own very different and individual experiences we would 

 reach a variety of answers. But I shall at least express the expe- 

 rience of a large body of people in saying that this intellectual 

 birth begins when for the first time we apprehend the principle 

 of causation. 



In any age there are but few who have attained the intellec- 

 tual life. The vast majority of the race are still absorbed with 

 the vegetative and animal functions of life. One would say that 

 the birth of the spirit is not yet. Even among those called en- 

 lightened the major part merely assent to the principle of causa- 

 tion. They can not be said to apprehend it as an experience of 

 their own intelligence. If you propound the principle to average 

 men and women they will unhesitatingly agree with you. It 

 takes no great cleverness to see that a denial would mean an im- 

 possible contradiction. In the sequence of events, causes are fol- 

 lowed by adequate and commensurate effects ; back of all effects 

 are adequate and commensurate causes. This does very well as 

 an abstract sentiment. But in the next comment which these 

 good people make upon human affairs, it is more than probable 

 that their denial of causation will be quite as direct and explicit 

 as if expressed in so many words. And this is notably the case 

 if the comment be upon those affairs which involve long-standing 

 traditions, as when the talk turns upon political or social or re- 

 ligious issues. 



The difficulty of being consistent is a great difficulty. The 

 ability to be consistent is a proper test of intellectual progress. 

 A great advance has been made when the beliefs in one depart- 

 ment of thought are not entirely contradicted and neutralized by 

 the beliefs in another department ; when even a small residue of 

 positive philosophy remains ; when our science does not contra- 

 dict our religion, and our religion our politics, and our politics 

 our sociology. 



How shall one attain even a moderate degree of reason ? It is 

 a large task to make the beliefs in any one bundle harmonize. It 

 is a still greater task to make the bundles themselves harmonize 

 with one another. In the autobiography of John Stuart Mill we 

 have the record of such an attempt, and I know of no book in the 

 language, which so stimulates one's desire to undertake a similar 

 task. 



Turning now from the workers to their work, the same prin- 



