60 Education through Nature 



that Newton, on seeing an apple fall to the ground, 

 was led to the discovery of the general law of gravita- 

 tion. He had, doubtless, seen many things fall before 

 he undertook to formulate the general law of falling 

 bodies. Others had seen the same thing; yet, unlike 

 Newton, they dwelt on the particular facts without 

 deducing the general law. Newton generalized. Ob- 

 servation should lead to generalization and abstraction. 

 Physiologically, this may possibly mean that a nervous 

 connection should be developed between the various 

 elements of the cerebral cortex, so as to facilitate a 

 regular and well-defined interaction between those 

 elements. Mere observation may involve the activity 

 of isolated centers only, giving no coherence to the 

 elements of knowledge. 



Abstraction resembles generalization in this, that, 

 from a number of particulars, we eliminate the non- 

 essentials and obtain an idea of some quality common 

 to many objects, but apart from any one of them. 

 Thus, from the sweet fragrance of many clovers, 

 sweet peas, etc., we may derive the abstract concep- 

 tion of sweetness in general. 



These general and abstract ideas, arising thus 

 through our experience with particulars, are of inesti- 

 mable value in the following stages of mental develop- 

 ment. They become controlling influences in the 

 voluntary life of the individual; regulative ideas, as 

 they are sometimes called. They are indications of 

 a formed and stable nervous system. Indeed the one 

 supreme aim of nature study might be said to be to 

 promote this nervous organization, the formation of 

 these general concepts; for it is only after these have 

 been formed that considerable advance in real science 

 is possible. From this point of view, also, nature 

 study is the foundation of all other studies of the 

 school; for it is evident that even reading is impossi- 

 ble without these general ideas* 



