THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 1s 
artificial education of the conscious, to the earlier natural 
education of the unconscious. 
It must not be imagined, however, that this latter educa- 
tion ceases when school lessons begin. On the contrary, 
the unconscious mind is being educated all through. Know- 
ledge has been divided into practical (which is unconscious) 
and rational (which is conscious), and these two go on 
together. 
And now a hint as to details. 
The true order of conscious education is “From the known 
to the unknown; from the simple to the complex ; from the 
concrete to the abstract,’* and if this order were carefully 
observed in all studies from learning to read, to the study of 
Christianity and the Bible, fewer blunders would be made, 
and far more satisfactory results would be obtained. 
Discrimination and exact observation by contrast and 
comparison through the senses should be carefully taught ; 
and all sensations should be cultivated to the last extent by 
discrimination. The difficulty here, as Preyer has remarked, 
is that there is a “great want of discriminating terms in 
tastes, smells, touch: while colours and sounds are well 
supplied ’t with descriptive words. Of course, words alone 
ean do little : no words can teach the difference between red 
and green; nevertheless, sense discrimination cannot be 
carried far without words to register its discoveries. 
Again, it is as well to get the knowledge into the brain 
through as many channels as possible. Hence, hearing a 
subject as well as reading it is a great help; and the former 
is often the greater educator. 
“As a test of the ear and eye impressions received by 
reading ‘As You Like It, it was found that when read aloud 
to the class by the master, they repeated it intelligently and 
understood the characters described; when, however, the 
boys were left to learn the task without hearing it read they 
failed to appreciate its meaning. Good aural impressions 
produced a mental appreciation which sight of the page 
failed to effect.’’t 
* Prof. Holman, Introduction to Education, p. 221. 
t+ W. Preyer, Mental Education of Childhood, p. 12. 
{ R. P. Hollek, Education of the Central Nervous System, 1896. Of 
course the reason of the above is obviously that in hearing we have 
Shakespeare’s thoughts interpreted through another brain to ours; 
whereas in reading we have them presented through the unintelligent 
medium of printed characters. 
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