SOME THOWUGHLS ON HE PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION 161 
bration ” be its technical expression, there still remains the striking fact that we 
are constantly using unpremeditated inferences and other like conclusions in 
practical life, the processes for deriving which we are profoundly ignorant. More 
than this, their certainty we do not for a moment call in question since all matters 
to which this conclusion applies, stand out in an orderly and bold relief. There 
is but one explanation of these phenomena possible; our minds are evolving the 
materials of former perceptions, balancing arguments, comparing data, and study- 
ing relations, when we do not know it, and in a similar manner to that employed 
when we voluntarily effect a solution of difficulties. Here, then, is the evident 
necessity of making all our experiences and their symbols, clear, concise and sey- 
erally distinguished, since we are wholly unable, at the time in question, to sup- 
plement any deficiency by improving the perception or otherwise increasing the 
quantity of materials for the mind’s use. 
By such training, wherein the pupil knows. from personal observation where- 
of he speaks, instead of relying upon his memory as to what some “authority ” 
has said about it, the student is not only better enabled to encounter the prob- 
lems of life and to perform its common offices not meanly but well. 
‘¢ A great problem, ever pressing upon mankind, 
Is how to discover and apply 
The immense universe of Truth unknown: 
The final end of all original research 
Is the improvement and perfection of mankind.’’* 
‘We are all blockheads in something” ¢ has reference more to special de- 
fects and special aptitudes in the mental constitution, but beneath this striking 
statement there lies the peculiarity, but little less than universal, commonly called 
dullnes. It is clear that, to the extent that original intuitions of the pupil have 
been confined within narrow limits, were incomplete from any cause, or are re- 
mote in time, their symbols will possess but a scanty meaning, and be unman_ 
ageable through all the contrivances and ingenious methods which the teacher 
can devise, 2. ¢. the pupil is dull; but, if the original experiences were ample 
and conclusive, were oft repeated and not distant in time while the native adhe- 
siveness of mind is fair or good, then the symbols as used in new relations, will 
‘possess a power which makes the eye twinkle, fills the face with enthusiasm, and 
begets a desire for continued progress, z. e. the child is apt. ‘‘ The new state- 
ment principle, or truth is comprehended” means, that the pupil has marshaled 
the symbols into intelligible order by readily supporting them with original ex- 
periences. ‘‘ He does not understand” means, the pupil can not refer the sym- 
bols to their fundamental correlates, which, if they ever existed, have now 
faded away. We fail to reach this mind, because this mind fails to perform that 
“act essential to every knowing. It must be noticed that these facts are not in- 
validated by that exceedingly important truth, that a good inheritance has every- 
thing to do with intellectual progress—‘‘ one must be well born”—as the same 
* Gore. 
} Senses and Intellect.—Bain. 
