STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Ill 



Observation brings in ideas and thought places them side by side 

 and compares them to find out their relations. Clear ideas are 

 necessary to thinking and it is for the purpose of giving clearness 

 to our ideas that observation needs to be trained. Observation 

 deals with things and thinking deals with their relations. The 

 mind compares one idea with another and forms a judgment as to 

 the relation that the one bears to the other, and this judgment is 

 expressed by a proposition. 



The order of thought then is from the object of knowledge to 

 the idea, from clear ideas to judgments of their relations ; and 

 from judgments that express known relations to conclusions estab- 

 lishing relations before unknown. 



I have said nothing of memory, imagination and the other facul- 

 ties of the soul, but they are equally dependent upon the elemen- 

 tary ideas that come through the senses. The grain must go in at 

 the hopper or grist cannot come out of the spout. 



The first steps in any study should furnish the elementarj' ideas 

 from the real objects of thought and associate with them the terms 

 used in books. Words are the symbols of ideas and only so far as 

 men have like ideas and the same words to stand for them can they 

 communicate their thoughts to each other by means of language. 

 I would not detract from the value of books, and the study of 

 books at school. 



Books have their proper place in school and a very large place 

 but they have usurped the place of observation and they have too 

 long stood between the child and knowledge. 



And you and I who know just enough of Nature to feel our loss, 

 and to regret that we were not taught how to learn, know this too 

 well. We think of our early possibilities and feel our need and go 

 to books to learn — for our school taught us no other way — and when 

 we look for Nature's units out of doors, we cannot find them. We 

 do not see the trees for woods. 



The earth beneath his feet is the child's. The heavens that arch 

 over him are his and the sun by day and the stars by night shine 

 for him. The land and water and life, the air that envelopes them 

 and all the forces that act upon them or are manifested through 

 them focus their rays upon him. He is the center of the universe 

 as he is the center of the circle bounded by earth and sky. And 

 this home slice was cut for him from the big round world, to feed 

 his growing mind and bring him to the full stature of his kuowl- 



