72 Education through Nature 



makes arduous labor a pleasure. Sentimental appre- 

 ciation is a poor substitute for that intellectual pleasure 

 which arises from the discovery of truths, revealing 

 themselves as connecting-links between the known 

 and the great unknown. 



IX. General Methods of Teaching. 



i. THE DISCOVERY METHOD might also be called 

 the seeing method. It is the method which the savage 

 uses in obtaining his empirical knowledge of his sur- 

 roundings. It may be characterized as negative 

 rather than positive, inasmuch as a controlling gen- 

 eral idea or hypothesis is wanting, and no conscious 

 attempt at system is made. 



This is also the natural method of the child. It is 

 natural for the child to move around freely among 

 objects, without any reason known to it, save that of a 

 natural restlessness accompanying a superabundance 

 of energy, or that of a vague curiosity. In this way 

 the child makes many discoveries. The liberty en- 

 joyed is wholesome, and therefore such activity is 

 interesting. The observations and discoveries thus 

 made give the keenest pleasures, because they are 

 the results of its own spontaneous activity. Mere 

 seeing, if carried no further, however, would be of little 

 value; but, as an introductory step, it is of the utmost 

 importance. The method and some of its results are 

 beautifully expressed by Whittier as follows: 



O ! for boyhood's painless play, 

 Sleep that wakes in laughing day, 

 Health that mocks the doctor's rules, 

 Knowledge never learned of schools: 

 Of the wild bee's morning chase, 

 Of the wild flower's time and place, 

 Flight of fowl, and habitude 

 Of the tenants of the wood; 

 How the tortoise bears his shell, . 

 How the woodchuck digs his cell, 

 And the ground-mole sinks his well; 



