SECTION 22. OBSERVATION. 291 



and that the article was written almost without halt in the author's 

 thought. To this extent the methodological ideal is satisfied. 



However, when his methodology inclined the author to the 

 belief that a positive scheme should be developed, his mind 

 became nearly a blank so far as this subject was concerned. 

 Various items occurred to him, but, from his methodological 

 standpoint, nothing worthy of being advocated as a system. 

 For some ten years he recurred repeatedly to his favourite 

 theme of conceiving an adequate plan, but in vain. During 

 the last two years, however, he felt that just as his young 

 children learnt to play on the piano, so should they become 

 proficient in matters of right conduct; but still no luminous 

 inspiration came to indicate how this was to be accomplished. 

 One day, at last, whilst one of his children was playing the 

 piano, a feasible solution dawned on him. It was to the effect 

 that, accepting as a basis the golden rule enunciated in 97, 

 one might begin with posture training sitting, standing, walking, 

 etc., proceed to handshaking and simple salutation, then to 

 simple conversation, and so forth. The general methods em- 

 ployed would be those in common use for all arts. 



This outline scheme was, again, prepared within an hour or 

 two in consequence of the application of methodological rules. 

 Here was a definite and hopeful beginning. Incidentally, he 

 pondered over the problem during the succeeding few weeks, 

 and though generally satisfied with his discovery, it did seem 

 to him that the art of conduct should be inculcated from earliest 

 infancy, a conclusion having no doubt a methodological origin. 

 Then it struck him that he had recently (The Training of the 

 Child: A Parents' Manual, 1912; revised edition, 1919) advocated 

 deliberate instruction and experiment in home education, and 

 that this would solve his difficulty. Light, therefore, came, first, 

 after a rule of life had been independently arrived at, simplifying 

 and systematising the teaching to be given, and, secondly, when 

 recollecting another recently systematised conclusion. So far as 

 the problem is concerned of developing the system for common 

 use, we need say nothing on this score here. 



Assume now that the author had rigidly applied his fully 

 developed methodological system. On its occurring to him to 

 utilise the experimental method in the moral training of children, 

 he would have, following precedent, at once decided on examining 

 the nature of the experimental method in child training generally. 

 This decision would have been followed practically immediately 

 by the resolve to inspect the time table of a fully modern school 

 (Conclusion 20). Trusting to recollection, until such time as 

 verification was convenient, physical training, games, hand- 

 work, drawing and painting, piano playing, and other subjects 

 would have suggested themselves. 



How was he to conceive the beginning of his experiments? 

 Clearly, on the methodological basis of commencing with the 



19* 



