General Aims of Nature Study 41 



in practical affairs of life, of those whose scholastic 

 erudition is above the average can be largely attributed 

 to the want of opportunity to develop the power of 

 forming correct, independent judgments. To read 

 other men's thoughts from the printed page, and to 

 passively accept the judgments there expressed, may 

 destroy the power of independent judgment. 



It is probable that back of all bad habits, back of 

 all crime, back of most if not all of our social evils, 

 there is a warped and undeveloped judgment. Our 

 schools have been engaged in training youth in com- 

 mitting to memory other people's judgments about 

 things. But as usual, memory often fails when most 

 needed. Besides, some judgment must be exercised 

 as to who shall be our guide, if we are unable to rely 

 on ourselves. The authorities chosen, under such 

 circumstances, are not always the best to say the least; 

 and the inclination to accept the advice of even the 

 best authorities is often wanting. 



The ability to form correct judgments about things 

 will assist in forming those correct judgments about 

 our fellow men which is so essential to good citizen- 

 ship; so essential, also, to a realization of our social 

 ideals. The child is apt to be careless and unreliable. 

 So much the more does he need to be trained to care- 

 fulness and deliberation in the judgment of things. 

 The habit of weighing evidence, of investigating facts, 

 before a judgment is pronounced, is not only essential 

 to success in a material sense, but will overcome that 

 servile condition of the ignorant mind, too often the 

 result of book work, which accepts as true the most 

 absurd occultism, with little or no effort to test its 

 intrinsic probability, or the reliability of the witness 

 thereto. 



Republican institutions and democracy rest upon 

 the independence and self-control to which a, sane 

 and sound judgment is so essential. Modern altruism 



