330 Education through Nature 



art has no relation to nature ; (4) that social knowledge 

 can be transmitted directly from individual to individual 

 by means of language; (5) the total depravity of the 

 child, and the possibility of total regeneration by 

 spiritual forces; (6) that ethical ideas can be effective 

 when passively received; (7) that the greatest gener- 

 alizations of which the adult human mind is capable 

 can be transmitted directly; (8) that memory is a fac- 

 ulty of a soul, having no connection with the body, yet 

 capable of retaining verbal forms and comprehending 

 their meaning; (9) that humble submission to authority 

 is a state to be desired. 



This can hardly be called a theory, but rather a 

 program. No induction or experience is appealed to 

 in substantiation of its feasibility. Indeed, it repudi- 

 ates evolution and experience alike, and stands on 

 purely a priori and transcendental foundations. It is 

 the program of the old education. It certainly has 

 a history. That history is an interesting chapter, too, 

 in the annals of European education. But it cannot be 

 related here. It is impossible not to admire the 

 lofty motives, while at the same time wondering at 

 the na'ievete of the scheme. It is certainly free from 

 any contamination of that modern science which it 

 professes to abhor. Yet it is not even now entirely 

 obsolete. 



It has the advantage of faith in things that can be 

 imagined, but neither seen nor demonstrated; of 

 stating aims and ideals with no laborious attempts to 

 show the probability of their realization. It also 

 presumes to appeal to the history of the past, and 

 cannot be accused of anything but conservatism. It 

 is the old humanism, the program of that culture 

 which has nothing to admire so much as its own self. 

 It is the natural program of all those teachers who 

 jump at conclusions, with no effort to establish those 

 Conclusions by laborious research; who, with an un- 



