July 8, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



17 



up the passages between the islands at the western entrance of 

 Hudson Strait, where it is kept in rapid motion by strong currents. 

 Log-books kept by whalers show that it is frequently found in 

 Hudson Strait in September. We should say that the passage will 

 never be safe, and that large freight-steamers, such as would be 

 required for this trade, cannot be run longer than from the middle 

 of July to the first davs of October. It is improbable that under 

 such circumstances a railroad to Fort Churchill and a line to Hud- 

 son Bay would pay. The shortness of the season and the dangers 

 of the ice are so great, that this line cannot attain a great com- 

 mercial value. 



THIXKIXG IX SHAPE AXD PICTORIAL TEACHIXG. 



The Rev. Edward Thring of Uppingham, the well-known author 

 of ' Theor}- and Practice of Teaching,' spoke before the teachers' 

 guild in London recently on thinking in shape and pictorial teach- 

 ing. Mr. Thring began by drawing attention to the vital distinc- 

 tion which divides mankind, consciously or unconsciously, into two 

 classes, — those who value knowledge, and those who value the 

 seeing heart and the seeing eye. The pursuit of knowledge is the 

 creed of the first. Knowledge he defined to be for the multitude 

 second-hand information, which, however valuable, may, like gold 

 in the desert, be utterly useless. He then showed, that, precious or 

 not, few get it, and that the unsuccessful attempt to get it is deadly 

 to linng power. Li\ing power is required, and can only be given 

 by teaching pupils to think in shape ; that is, to train the mind, 

 whenever it sees any thing, to find out at once what thought made 

 the shape it sees ; and, on the other hand, to take every word used 

 and put it at once into some definite shape, example, or reality. 

 Examples of this were given, showing the difference between an 

 arithmetical fact and living feeling, between words and memory- and 

 a ^ivid mental picture. Then the lecturer proceeded to show that 

 every word not TOidly understood is a cipher, and that words are 

 not vi\idly known, and never can be vividly known, unless thinking 

 in shape is taught and practised. After sho\\dng the failure of 

 memon.--work, the lecturer pointed out that the commonest objects 

 cannot be described correctly, because no one has been taught to 

 see what they really are. A common chair can be made to give a 

 history- of thought and life and experience taking shape, and to lead 

 up to the great fact that ever}- shape is such a histor}-, a Uving nar- 

 rative, and the whole world a great illuminated volume of thought, 

 speaking through shape which can be read by those who have 

 learned to read thought in shape. But if this is so. then all shape 

 is a language speaking truth or falsehood, giving honor or dishonor. 

 And it does matter whether rooms and appliances are worthy or 

 unworthy. How, then, has England treated lessons ? Let the 

 class-rooms in all their meanness answer. Then what class-rooms 

 ought to be was shown, and examples brought forward of pictorial 

 teaching. The way in which walls can be decorated \\ithout the 

 painter going near the wall was explained, and designs for wall- 

 decoration given. The treatment of books, and what is needed for 

 books, next claimed attention. Then the effect on language of 

 thinking in shape was dealt with, and the true progress of art by 

 expression ever becoming more vivid in word and painting. 



•■ Thinking in shape and pictorial teaching at once turn all created 

 things into new language for thought. Ever)- created thing becomes, 

 on the spot, a possible new bit of thought, a possible new word bom 

 into the world of speech. I throw out, as a suggestion for any 

 master of language, as distinct from a doctorer of words, to examine 

 into the curious fact, that in the last eighty years the English language 

 has in this way doubled itself, by flashing new light into old words, 

 by new- combinations of words, by freer use of allusions and meta- 

 phors, and by pictorial handling of its material ; and that it is prac- 

 tically a new language, in its wonderful increase in power of 

 expression, and the breathing of new life into its shape. For ex- 

 pression goes on forever, as higher life produces higher manifesta- 

 tion of life, feelings, and thought, in human face and form, and 

 again becomes able, by being higher, more sensitive, more sj-mpa- 

 thizing, not only to see and interpret the new shapes, but to find 

 endless riches of unknown stores of precious discoveries in the old. 

 This is the only true path of progress. 



" The pictorial mind first pictures to itself all its own ideas, and 



thinks in shape ; and, secondly, is ever extracting ideas, new and 

 old, out of the things it sees, picturing to itself all the words it uses, 

 translating and retranslating thought into shape and shape into 

 thought, till all things live and move for it in a universe that is living 

 thought incarnate. The lesson-book is always before it. In city or 

 desert, church or hovel, street or field, with flower, or tree, or cloud, 

 or sun, or animal, or bird, or insect, from end to end of all things, 

 there is the everlasting voice crying, ' He that hath ears to hear let 

 him hear, he that hath eyes to see let him see, for life infinite, lan- 

 guage universal, lies at your feet for pleasure and use always.' The 

 pictorial mind is the only power man has that is capable of infinite 

 progress. It is the only power that belongs to all men. It is the 

 only power that is within reach of the poor. It can be taught. It 

 can almost be created. 



" As the w-orld goes on and knowledge increases, it will be more 

 and more impossible to know it all, a thing which was once quite 

 within reach. Ever%- man, however learned, will be narrowed by 

 degrees down to a single subject. But subjects are many. There 

 are a thousand languages, for instance ; to know how to speak even 

 half a dozen really well is an achievement ; and so on, through the 

 whole range of knowledge. How can any one man cope with this 

 accumulation of facts ? Boasts of knowledge, therefore, belong to 

 the nursery level, betokening stupendous ignorance of man's capacity 

 for knowing, and of what there is to know. Let us get out of the 

 nurser}- and betake ourselves to true progress, and men as they are." 



But " as long as examinations reign, there can be no true teach- 

 ing," said Mr. Thring, " and thinking in shape and pictorial teaching 

 find no place." 



MEXTAL SCIEXCE. 



Can the Mind attend to Two Things at Once? 



This question has been frequently asked, and variously answ-ered, 

 according to the conception of ' attention ' and of the objects to be 

 attended to. Those who lay stress on the unit)- of mind regard it 

 as almost evident a priori, that but one concept can occupy the 

 focus of attention at a time, and that, if apparently many are enter- 

 tained by consciousness at the same moment, it is simplv because 

 of the rapidity with which the attention can flit from one to the 

 other. The holders of the opposite \-iew call attention to the fact 

 that in the quickest possible glance, in the flash of an electric spark, 

 we get a view of an object, capable of being analyzed into a series 

 of concepts, and that we saw- ever)- one of these as well as any- 

 other. A French psychologist, M. Paulhan, has recently stated 

 the problem in its proper aspect, and illustrated the position he 

 takes by some very- interesting experiments. \\"hat is at one time 

 the sole object of attention, completely filling the field of conscious- 

 ness, may at another be only a small part of that field. Attention, 

 Hke the lens of the eye, is now accommodated to act as an instru- 

 ment of near focus, high magnification, but limited aperture, and 

 again as one of distant focus, small magnify-ing-power, but w-ide 

 range. At one time we see the rider and the horse as a single ob- 

 ject : at another they are two. Admitting, then, that the object of 

 attention is determined by a subjective element, b\- interest, by im- 

 portance, by attractiveness, or what not, it remains to similarly de- 

 termine the meaning of ' attention.' Just as memon,- is. from one 

 point of \iew, not a single facult)-, but a co-ordinated set of sepa- 

 rate, indi\idual memories, so attention is capable of various degrees 

 of intensity, of various subdi\-isions of function. There are currents 

 and undercurrents of attention. The e)^e may be intently engaged in 

 looking for a friend, while the ear is drinking in the notes of a s)-m- 

 phony, and w-e are suddenly conscious of a draught in the room. 

 Whether or not there is a loss of energy between these occupations 

 is to be determined by experiment. 



M. Paulhan wrote the lines of one poem while reciting the w^ords 

 of another. The two series w-ould sometimes get confused, a 

 word, syllable, or prominent letter of the recited verse creeping 

 into the \\-ritten : but such mistakes soon became rare. The two 

 series are largely strung on separate strings, and proceed in parallel 

 directions. To repeat one poem aloud, and mentally go over the 

 w-ords of another, caused greater confusion. 



If we compare the sum of the times necessary to pert'orm each 

 act separately with the time necessary to perform the two together. 



