THAT TEACHEST ANOTHER TEACHEST THOU NOT THYSELF T'' ^^ UOS i CHU. HABIT AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN EDUCATION PEDAGOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF DR. PAUL RADESTOCK BY F. A. CASPARI WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY G. STANLEY HALL, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY BOSTON D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1894 3SOoas well as modern times is teeming with proofs of this fact, and if we wanted to mention all those who, in more practical fields arose from limited conditions, their name would be legion ! In ^ these men, a strong confidence in their own power is devel- oped and great self-consciousness, which has an invigorating effect, and forms a powerful stimulus to further labor. Modesty and consideration for others demand that this self-consciousness J J& tts*lSi<6-*siJ Cx^ V^-^-y^*--<-*^C^x^L^- "^*c^ v . */ .7* J*.* ML* ^ . / fj sJ / ' sU +* :V ^ THE WILL. 55 should remain unexpressed. * If it, however, comes out more or less strongly, its cause is often not taken into consideration enough in judging such people. The number of members in the family, the age and sex , , of the other inmates, the religion and the occupation of the ..# father, exercise a great influence. The children very often ^ enter the same occupation as their father, because they earlv '. become accustomed to this circle of thought. The daily bust- ", ness of the parents is often spoken about, and the child there- " fore early grows acquainted with all the impressions connected therewith ; it imitates those occupations, and learns to love them, even before it is able to understand their object. The conditions among which it grows up decide whether in its imagination it exercises as a soldier, or busies itself with books like a scholar, begins this or that occupation, etc. IVaitz. The influence of the mother on the soul of the child has justly been dwelt upon to a great extent in prose and poetry, and Pestalozzi remarks : "The picture of its mother, which accompanies it everywhere, becomes itself the conscience of the child." Of greatest importance is the choice of playmates and friends, also the association with schoolmates and univer- sity students, etc. Waitz writes : " Thus obstinacy and per- verseness are more easily cured by schoolmates than even by parents and teachers, as the former oppose him who appears quarrelsome and moody with nothing but simple inattention ; they do not concern themselves about him, and therefore gen- erally see him among themselves again in a short time, led back by his social wants. Vanity and conceit also remain unheeded, or are compelled to withdraw in shame and hide before the ridicule of their companions. Power finds its master, and is thereby saved from self-deception. Awkward- ness is laughed at and thus forced to attention and effort. Indolence is spurred on, effeminacy forced to deny itself. Diffidence is encouraged to come forth. Security of physical 56 HABIT IN EDUCATION. health, rapid and versatile progress in knowledge, but especially an understanding of self, and a power of self-control in thought and action, the individual can only acquire by a life in com- pany with others." This good influence of associates, therefore, forms the principal advantage of school-education in contrast to home education. Pestalozzi pointed out the prominent fact : " Father's and mother's punishments rarely make a bad im- pression. A wholly different effect is produced by the punish- ment of school and other teachers. While in the family love rules, in school the legitimacy of law comes to the front. The advantages which private education offers, the consideration of individuality, and the rapid progress of intelligence do not balance the advantages which a school-education offers. The continual supervision in the former is not always useful ; it may even be harmful." Bain remarks : " The presence of a large assembly exercises an electric influence on the individual and arouses it. Every effort in presence of a visitor is hereby changed and deepened in its character. This is effected in class instruction, and the drilling of large masses of soldiers, because all strive to reach the general level." Not only the persons among whom the child spends the first years of its life, but the entire outer environment and material relations in which these years are spent, are by the frequent repetition of certain impressions of vast importance for its intellectual development. The condition should not vary too much so that it may occasion the reproduction of the same wishes. They should furthermore be simple enough for the child to see through them, and determine whether any new relations are introduced, or merely old ones involved. Fre- quent change of the condition of life is injurious to proper training as well as to the consolidation of a train of thoughts. Jean Paul writes in his autobiography : " Truly there is even a greater misfortune than to be at the capital, and that is, to be THE WILL. 57 carried, as the child of noble parents, for years through foreign cities and among strange people, and to know no other home than the coach." Lazarus shows that by far the greatest num- ber of Roman authors who afterwards attained celebrity were not born in Rome itself; he thinks the cause of their greatness may be found in the impressions of their early youth ; the child in the country has simpler but oft-repeated impressions ; hence they endure longer and the psychical actions become more concentrated while the rapidly changing and varying impres- sions of the metropolis are more volatile, remain a less time themselves, and yet render the inner concentration more diffi- cult. Lazarus speaks of a " Tempo of Thinking," and points out that people who perform physical labor slowly, also think slowly ; that, furthermore, country people who are known for the clumsiness of their thoughts excel in a firmness of will, and are principally the ones who in battle " stand as a wall." (On the other hand, the peculiarities of many important talents, the rapid change of motives for actions as well as thoughts, may be explained by the great variability of physical life in general. Every one has the faults of his virtues !) Too great umvield- iness is, however, useless and harmful in life ; to many peas- ant boys the years of military drill are of great advantage in lessening the clumsiness of their movements and carriage, as well as of their thoughts. We may, indeed, find that the large intercourse and the varied impressions of the metropolis mostly educate quick children who are always ready with an answer, show no diffi- dence, and always appear self-conscious in conversation, but who, later on, excel less in concentration of thoughts, and that a quick superficiality is considered by them of more value than great depth of thought. Do not many scientists withdraw from the noise and whirl of the large city into solitude if they wish to finish a work requiring clear, sharp, and concentrated thought ? It is true, we must remember that practical life also 58 HABIT IN EDUCATION. requires presence of mind and quick readiness. Kern justly remarks that "regularity of life should not degenerate iuu> monotony, simplicity into want." Lotze writes : " Monotony as well as a continual change of impressions provokes a dis- turbance of the train of thoughts, desolation and dreamlike stupor in the former ; psychical vertigo and want of control in the latter case." If concentration has been taught in youth, a change of the surroundings will prove very beneficial, even necessary; it is well known what benefit a mature youth or man derives from travelling, which causes him to recognize other conditions than those prevailing at home, and thus gives him a survey of life and strengthens his character and energy. " Man must issue forth into hostile life," for a talent may be formed in " solitude," but a character only in " the rush of the world." Tasso and Antonio. " A noble man cannot in narrow bounds His wisdom gain. Home and the distant world Must influence him. Fame and reproach He there must learn to bear with calm. Self and Others is he taught to know full well. No Longer will solitude gently soothe him. Enemies will not, friends dare not, spare him. Thus while struggling, the youth gains his power, Feels what he is, and feels himself a man." Locke, however, truly remarks that travelling into foreign lands will be of great use to a man only when he is familiar enough with the affairs of his native land to be able to exchange origi- nal opinions and personal experience with the people he meets, and to compare and combine the new impressions with those already acquired. After the education of a youth has been completed, the actions of the chosen vocation bring man impressions which by fre- quent repetition grow and give him an individual stamp. It has occasionally been found that in laborers their occupation, as THE WILL. 59 well as the circumstances surrounding these, exercised a dis- tinct psychical reflex, which in consequence of the repetition gradually became a characteristic quality. The mercurial bar- ber has different characteristic qualities from the butcher or cooper or smith. Lazarus even thinks that the volatileness, the inclination to busy themselves with politics, and other qualities which tailors show, may be explained by the fact that they have light and rapid work which occupies only their hands and dur- ing which they can speak and sing, while the shoemaker, who, in consequence of his labor with wire and frequent drawing and stretching of the leather, can talk less and only think inclines more to mystic and philosophic reflections. The dancing-mas- ter and artist differ in character from the silent thinker. The farmer and laborer accustomed to physical labor, as well as the merchant who moves mostly in practical life, have a different view of life, and look upon everything from a more practical standpoint than the teacher or scholar who is accustomed to indulge in profound thoughts and reflections and speculations about the value of his ideal mental possessions. The lawyer who by his business remains in more frequent intercourse with the outer world is generally, like the officer, a better social com- panion than the theoretical thinker who spends most of his time in study over his books. He who would care to write a psy- chological investigation of the peculiarities of military character could not only show that the dexterity of the officer in social forms is connected with the precision and rapidity of move- ment acquired in his official activity, but also that the strong class-feeling, aside from the influence of inheritance and sur- roundings, is largely due to the erect carriage, to the close-fit- ting dress which with the body also holds the soul together. Every one can easily observe how much freer and braver he will feel while walking erect in the open air than while at work in his study or office. Fechner attempts to show us that an imitation of the physical expression of a foreign mental condi- 6O HABIT IN EDUCATION. tion will teach us to understand the latter much better than a mere view of this expression. The repetition of certain actions and functions caused by habit is what, next to the degree of education, creates the opin- ion of rank, and causes the different classes to have different views of the world and life in general. The same will also be seen in the history of nations. At all times there were distinct national characters which were caused in part by the influence of climate and nature in general, by the degree of enlightenment, etc., but principally by the habits continued through many generations. The Athenian, cherishing arts and science and the ideals of life, thought differently from the Spartan, who espe- cially prized physical strength and hardihood, or the world-con- quering Roman, who managed political life with so much energy. The volatile and social Frenchman is in general less accustomed to deep thinking and firm wishing than the German, and the German is far outstripped in practical sense by the Englishman and American, who are more active in commerce and manu- facturing. Buckle in his work, " History of Civilization in England," speaks of the importance of uninterrupted labor in the formation of national character. He says : " Inhabitants of the Frigid Zone never show the striving industry met with in the Temperate Zone. By want of light, and the severity of winter, they are compelled to give up their work. The classes otherwise working are hence inclined to disorderly habits, and the national character shows perverseness and moodiness. Thus in Sweden and Norway, where the severe cold and short- ness of the days, and, on the other hand, in Portugal and Spain, where heat and drought often interrupt the labor, the national character evinces unsteadiness and fickleness in marked con- trast to those who in a temperate climate have no cause to interrupt their labor." Roscher says : " No people will surpass the English and Anglo-Americans in labor-energy, the Germans in labor-comprehension, and the French in labor-taste." The THE WILL. 6l difference between the impressions and the whole psychical life of the sexes is caused partially by distinct physical impressions by the earlier or later development, but also by the difference of position in life and social intercourse as well as all the expe- riences called forth thereby. Women have a greater inclination for the concrete than men because they are more dependent upon it from youth up. Girls gather less mental store than boys, and use it more rapidly but with less diversity and divis- ion. Spencer goes even farther, and explains characteristic peculiarities of women in the Darwinian way, by saying that in former times the women possessing these particular qualities in greater degrees than others found more approval and were chosen for the propagation of the species, whence these qualities were transmitted by inheritance, and during a continuance of the favorable circumstances were brought to greater promi- nence. It is plain that under otherwise similar circumstances, among women who lived by the favor of the men, those who succeeded best in pleasing were most likely the ones who remained alive. And, if we take into consideration the prevailing transmission of habits on one side, it will lead in a series of generations to the effect that a special striving after praise, and the ability of developing the whole nature for this purpose, appears as a dis- tinctly feminine trait. In a similar way, the wives of cruel savages under like circumstances must have had an easy time in proportion to their ability to hide their feelings. ... In some cases, again, the arts of persuasion enabled woman to protect herself and children, where a lack of these arts would have caused her to disappear early. A further ability may be called the power of quickly distinguishing the volatile feelings of those surrounding her. A woman who, in barbarous times, could immediately detect the rising passion of her wild husband by the tone of voice, a slight motion, or the expression of his face, probably escaped dangers which a woman less able to 62 HABIT IN EDUCATION. understand the natural language of emotion was obliged to endure. From the continued practice of this ability, and the success of those possessing it, we may infer that it took root as a distinctly feminine trait. . . . The effect which the show of power, of whatever kind, by men, has on the affections of women, is widely discussed by Spencer. He thinks that among women of unequal taste, those who were charmed by manly, physical, or mental power, and married men able to protect them, enjoyed longer life than those pleased with weaker men. To this inevitable admiration for power may be ascribed the fact which has caused so much discussion : that women generally care more for men who maltreat them if the rudeness is accompanied by physical power, than for weaker men who treat them well. With the progress of culture, the admiration for physical power gradually changed into that for mental power in every field, and from this developed the feeling of reverence in viewing all that which betrays conspicuous power or ability, the respect for authority, etc. In this way we can also explain the inconsistency of women, their skill in quickly turning any action another way, and giving to their own expressions, as well as those of others, a meaning suitable to the time, but often entirely different from the original one. For, as they could well use these little aids in reconciling their angry husbands, these qualities have gradually been inherited and strengthened, and thus grown the lasting possession of the sex. What in social life we call " custom " is nothing more than the habit-of-action of a large majority continued for several generations. SPECIAL HABITS. 63 CHAPTER VII. SPECIAL HABITS. CLEANLINESS. PUNCTUALITY. NEATNESS. ENDURANCE, SELF-CONTROL. OBEDIENCE. POLITENESS. ATTENTION. DILIGENCE. UNSELFISHNESS. CALISTHENICS. STUDY. IF, now, we examine the various habits, we shall find that, according to our definition, there are as many different kinds as there are physical and mental functions. We might, perhaps, divide them into I. Physiologic dispositions and their com- bination in sensific parts of the nervous system ; therefore, habits of action: (i) the senses, (2) the memory, (3) the intellect, the association of ideas, (4) the will as controller of the impressions. II. Dispositions and their combinations in motory centres, therefore, practices of voluntary and involun- tary motions. These could again be divided either according to the organs which they affected : (i) organs of speech, (2) arms, hands, and fingers, (3) legs and feet; or according to the centres in which they originated: (i) spinal cord, (2) brain. III. A union of both the truly mental (intellectual) and the motific functions (combination of sensitive with motory parts). Biran and Rosenkranz distinguish active and passive habits ; the former strengthen the spontaneity, the latter change the organism itself by impressions received, and bring it into accordance with them. To consider them all would carry us too far and beyond the limits set for this work, we dare not even here splinter our strength, and must try to economize. Therefore we will take up only those habits which are of special importance in actual education. 64 HABIT IN EDUCATION. Very early, even from its birth, the child is to be accustomed to cleanliness and neatness, first passively, then actively. Clean- liness is not only of the utmost importance with regard to health, but exercises an influence on the whole mental life. Mere physical cleanliness is followed by its psychical parallel. Spen- cer even says : " Dirt is generally accompanied by an incli- nation towards crime. Cleanliness creates a fancy for order and regularity in general, which education must develop by forming habits of punctuality and neatness. Both are of equal importance, though Curtman would place habits of punctuality even before those of neatness." Women generally have a predilection for harmonious arrange- ments as regards space, while men place more value on punctu- ality. Besides observing regular hours for eating, the child should be accustomed to a proper division of time as re- gards work and rest : it must learn to keep things in order. Furthermore, the child should early be inured to bear unpleas- ant things, so that the man may bear severe physical and mental labor, and pain of every sort with greater ease. The feeling of physical health and strength is the surest foundation for the characteristic qualities of courage, resolution, and discre- tion ; emollition of the body is often followed by debility, and renders self-control far more difficult, while physical exer- tion and hardening form a good preparatory school for mental energy, steadfastness, and firmness towards self; and, when proceeding from a free will, already presuppose a certain degree of the latter. The educational influence in hardening the organism should render it capable of bearing the influences of climate, of bodily pain, and physical exertion. Ruegg well notes that special diversion of attention helps to bear a pain. A child cries more when it is pitied for some slight accident, and requested to show the painful place ; if its attention is diverted to something else, it will soon forget the pain. Cicero says that next to reflexion a tension of the mind and energy of SPECIAL HABITS. 65 will helps to conquer the pain, as straining the physical powers helps to bear weights with greater ease. Kant thinks the mind can conquer its sickly emotions by a mere resolve. In habitu- ating a child to bear physical pain we should, however, not say to the child, " It does not hurt," for it feels the pain very dis- tinctly, and notices that the adult is trying to quiet it with a lie ; we should say, " It only hurts," and thus teach it to feel a contempt for pain. Since the Doric race made physical training a main principle of education in contrast to the effem- inate training of the Oriental Greeks, various authors investi- gated its worth, and its importance is as well recognized by civilized nations as proven to uncivilized ones by practice. The child should, however, not only be accustomed to per- form strong and powerful, but also fine, functions. It must gradually learn to control the vehement expression of its feelings. Jean Paul says : " Children share with weak persons the inability to cease." Every one knows that children who have once begun laughing or crying cannot be quieted for some time, while the small cause thereof is in no proportion whatever to the length of these emotional eruptions. It is in most cases not stubborn- ness or obstinate will which the child shows, but the inability to suppress its emotions ; this inability education must do away with ; it should not be permitted to become permanent, as it has unfortunately done in many cases, as is evinced by the gossipping and lamenting of many adults, particularly women. Even men find it difficult, sometimes impossible, to suppress a hearty laugh at slight causes, though it occasion them great un- pleasantness. The child should control its motion and learn to sit still ; but it must learn at the same time to be active when required, and not to permit its psychical functions to be interrupted by an unexpected impression and new relations. It shall therefore lose the extreme diffidence and bashfulness that are caused by the interruption of a psychical process, which otherwise proceeds 66 HABIT IN EDUCATION. undisturbed. A strong and unexpected emotion lengthens as has been shown by experiment the time of reaction, that is, the duration of the nervous process which takes place between the reception of an impression and the reaction that follows it, by checking the activity of the will. It is the same phenomenon which, in a stronger degree, is characterized as terror. Wundt. Exner, however, states that the time of reaction may be shortened by practice. The length of the apperception of complex impressions is greatly diminished by continued prac- tice. To prevent the ability to become active from degenerat- ing into officiousness it must be combined with modesty and humility. A union of these qualities, as well as the action of each at the proper time, produces the habit of obedience, which should begin as soon as the will of the child begins to form itself. Rousseau very properly remarks, in answer to Locke, that one should not explain the reasons for a command to a child, not argue with it ; the child will not comprehend the reasons, and the long argument have a far different effect from what it was intended to have. It will either, as mostly happens, grow monotonous, and permit other thoughts to arise, or its sound will have a pleasant effect on the child without causing it to realize the serious content. Locke, it is true, says that we should explain the reasons in a manner and form comprehen- sible to the child ; but this is exceedingly difficult, often even impossible, and reasoning with the child had best be avoided altogether. . . . The disposition and character of children are only rarely formed by much reasoning and proofs of what is good, right, and duty. "The different wish of the educator must appear to the child as a firm, invincible power against which its self-will is absolutely powerless. . . ." Francke thinks we should implant three things especially into the child's mind : i. Love of truth ; 2. Obedience ; 3. Love of work. SPECIAL HABITS. 67 Admonitions and reproofs often lose their aim by being too long, for the child in the meantime entertains other thoughts or picks up especial points against which it chances to be opposed, and in its mind delivers a speech of defence by which it is finally entirely convinced of its right. Lazarus mentions a case in which a father attempted to explain the outrage of its be- havior to a child that had been making a noise during its mother's sickness. The child listened attentively to the long, well-set speech and at its end said to his father, " Say that again " ; the sound of the speech had pleased the child, not- withstanding it had not understood anything of its import or taken it to heart at all. A similar result of lengthy speeches has often been noticed among uncivilized nations though the language was unintelligible to the hearers, yes, even if it had no log- ical sense. We shall find parallel to most observations in the nursery, in the mental life of uncultivated people, and the psychological studies made at both places are complementary. The command given to a child should be short and decided, not permitting a recall ; the child must learn to look upon obedience as a stern necessity, the authority of him who uttered the command as an absolute power against which it can accom- plish nothing. Only in this manner will it gain any respect for authority, whether it be exercised by parents and teachers, or in later life by law, custom, and persons in a higher position. But here also the age of the pupil should be taken into considera- tion ; the older pupil and youth should not be entirely deprived of the reasoning and converse which are not given to the child. It has been truly observed that Kant's morals, by the rigid severity in the execution of the idea of duty, by the decisiveness and independence of the moral demands greatly advanced the training of men in Prussia, and thus assisted in the stern politi- cal regeneration of Germany. Hence the sense for propriety and a refined bearing should early be impressed upon the child. Although we can give the 68 HABIT IN EDUCATION. reasons for its laws in general, this often can not be done with distinct cases. Though we do not place so much value on a refined bearing as Locke who aimed at the education of an aristocrat, though we would train the pupil rather to deep, clear, and precise thinking and energetic action, than form him into a society dandy or hollow talker, yet the ability of never-lacking tact in our intercourse with various persons, and not offending by bad manners, is of some importance. We do not mean to say that the child should be invited to parties and soirees, and that it must forever be in the company of older persons. The former renders the child unaccustomed to hard work, lessens its pleasure in action, and permits a fondness for a mere life of pleasure to develop very early ; the latter makes the child precocious and spoils its pleasures of youth. Con- tinued supervision as Herbart already showed is not of much use. Companions and schoolmates during the time for recreation often have a better influence on the mental develop- ment of the child than the teachers with their steady admoni- tions and rules. Parents who possess ready tact, especially mothers, can awaken the sense of politeness in the soul of the child without exposing it to the above hurtful influences. Good behavior, that is, the union of habits the controling of invol- untary motions and emotions, the ability to be passive or active at the proper time, to lose excessive bashfulness and still remain modest, the flexibility of the limbs as well as ease and refine- ment in all functions is not only useful in pleasing people and occasionally facilitating the accomplishment of a certain practical end, but the firmness and security resulting therefrom is of vast importance for the psychical life in general. Waitz shows that he who as a child excels among children through the suppleness of his body and the grace of his outer bearing, which is closely connected with the former, will mostly turn out to be enterprising, independent, a leading personage, while the awkward one is much ridiculed, often put aside, only rarely SPECIAL HABITS. 69 sought for by others as companion, whence he gradually adopts the good or evil qualities of the hermit, viz. patience, modesty, resignation, or sensitiveness, suspiciousness, pleasure at the misfortunes of others, etc. Even among grown persons the greater or less ease of which they are conscious in their move- ments determines whether or not they feel at home in society, how far they will give up to it, or treat it with reserve, how much of what it offers they will receive, with what- degree of pleasure they seek society, and, what is most important, what society this is. Luys connects the fineness of psychical feeling with the fineness of the skin and the touch-impressions thus received. It is well known that women in general, but partic- ularly those leading a life of leisure and not using their hands for rough work, have a fine, tender and sensitive skin ; the sen- sory nerves are more exposed and open to all external irritation. Touch and feeling are continually in a state of vibrating tension, and thus the mind receives numberless perceptions and touch- recognitions which usually remain entirely unnoticed by man. Hence in women of refined society, but also in men having a sensitive skin, the development and expression of mental abil- ities keeps step with the development and fineness of the sensi- bility of the skin. Fine feeling becomes almost a second sight, so that the mind feels and sees fine shades of difference which remain hidden from most men. On this is founded the im- portant moral feeling known as soul-feeling. With individuals of tender, easily-irritated skin, whose sensorium like a drawn string is ready to begin vibrating on the slightest shock, it is characteristically developed. Compare with these the work- man who handles his heavy tools and bears burdens : with him the skin is thick, and between the network of sensory nerves and the bodies affecting them lie dense epithelial layers. Study the intellectual and moral sensibility here, and you will find that there is none of that delicate feeling which lends a peculiar character to the mental bearing of individuals with a fine skin. 7O HAEIT IN EDUCATION. When the child enters school, the latter should strengthen, confirm, and develop the habits mentioned before. To these are added other habits, especially that of attention. In the beginning the child has no active, but only passive attention, that is, in the rapid change of the manifold impressions and reminiscences it will turn to the strongest one. This is to be first used and gradually transformed into active attention, which is able to hoose among the impressions and received concep- tions, leave the strongest unnoticed at times, and firmly fix in its place a weaker conception, which has more or less connec- tion with others, or which, even without these connections, is required at the given moment. Waitz says : " The child origi- nally possesses no power by which it can give its train of thoughts a certain direction, retain it in such an one, or turn it away therefrom ; it is led on entirely by the external impressions on the one hand, and by the associations and reproductions, which are joined to a perception of external things and its bodily condition, on the other." " The teacher can therefore at first only make thorough use of this involuntary attention of the child." The ability of a voluntary straining of the atten- tion grows in the same proportion in which the inner connec- tion, the ease of surveying and connecting the separate parts lying within the domain of impressions to which it is directed, is increased. It is only by accustoming the child to check the rapid change of ideas, and select and fix a distinct impression from among the manifold variety of impressions crowding in from without, furthermore, by keeping its voluntary attention directed to this fixture, that we may hope to save it from dis- traction, and lead it from clear, precise, and firm views and conceptions, to the depth and concentration of logical thoughts. Lazarus writes : " Especially in a class where the large number of pupils renders a continual direct instruction of each one impossible, the pupil should be accustomed to follow the indirect instruction with a lively attention, and thus collect the SPECIAL HABITS. /I rays into which the activity and words of the teacher have been separated within himself as a focus." Attention is increased : i . By a firm, erect position of the body. This leads man to control himself inwardly as well as outwardly. On the other hand, attention is shown *>y an erect position of the body, by the vivid eye, and by the expression which the face receives from the activity of the soul. Its oppo- site is recognized by the weary, sunken carriage, the staring and lifeless or wandering gaze, the " don't care " expression, betraying foreign psychical emotion. 2. Attention finds a mental aid in the interest which the pupil has for the subject, in consequence of his natural inclination or the education of his teacher. Interest is increased in the same measure in which we allow the pupil to grasp the easily comprehensible ideas lying around every object, and gradually proceed from these to others, lying farther away. We should be content with very little at first, and allow what has been comprehended to be thoroughly digested by a systematic repetition, and con- tinually extended by successive representations from different points of view. Hereby not only the simple object is grasped more completely and intensely, but an interest is awakened for such objects as were at first incomprehensible to the child. Ruegg says : " We have exceedingly sharp senses for anything that interests us, and at the same time very dull ones for any- thing immaterial to us." But, in general, only that is of any interest to us which we are to a certain degree capable of mas- tering, which we at least think to comprehend. The cele- brated pedagogue, T. Ziller, studied the importance of interest very minutely, and declares that instmction must particularly awaken and develop a wide and many-sided interest in the objects taught and the mental labor, while the separate particles received may occasionally, without harm, fall a prey to forgetful- ness. It is this wide and various interest that distinguishes the truly educated ancl mentally active person ; and the increased 72 HABIT IN EDUCATION. interest in separate subjects causes him to be saved from dis- traction, notwithstanding a generous education, and enables him to use his concentrated efforts in separate fields. Interest, furthermore, awakens and increases diligence, as, on the other hand, it is heightened by earnest but not excessive activity. And diligence is what every school must foster and practise. The child should early be accustomed to the view that a life consisting of labor and care is precious, and that only hard work leads to the goal. Man must recognize that no disgrace is due to labor, be it physical or mental, and at present valued more or less highly in the world ; but that idleness is not only the root of all evil, for in "an idle way labors the evil spirit," but is besides unworthy of every man whom God endowed with a healthy body and mind. Spencer remarks : "The opinion that it is honorable to do nothing but seek pleasure, and in a certain sense dishonorable to spend life in providing others with the means of this pleasure, though con- siderably weakened, still holds ground." He points to the fact that there is something low in being a mere consumer. But as the ideas of honor vary among different nations, and at different times, he thinks that " those of our contemporaries, who glory in consuming much, and producing nothing ; and who concern themselves little about the welfare of their fellow-men so long as these provide them with good meals, soft beds, and pleasant diversions, will be looked upon with amazement by people of future times, who live under higher social forms." This change in ideas about honor is not only possible but very probable. As the wealthy in China even now have their nails grow so long that they must be turned back, and the ladies submit to long tortures, " that their compressed feet may show their inability to labor," the di.sgracefulness of commerce was in former times an article of belief firmly upheld among the upper classes of European nations. Now we see how members of the land- owning class enter into business ; and even the sons of peers SPECIAL HABITS. 73 take up a scientific profession, or become merchants ; and how the feeling that people of their position have public duties to perform spreads more and more among the wealthy, while the absolutely idle among them are considered blameworthy. "If this refinement of the ideas of honor is further developed, they will," Spencer thinks, " in future be amazed that there should ever have been persons who thought it admirable to enjoy with- out working, to the cost of those who work without enjoying." Roscher says : " The higher culture rises the mpre honorable is labor, while barbaric nations despise it as slavish. And if every one would experience the delight of life, if he will prove the truth of the saying, 'after ended labor we rest well,' he must learn that labor is not only sweet, and may also turn very bitter; but that the joy at its completion is the highest and, according to the view of some, the only sensual one which has no admixture of disgust." " Epicureanism fails because it leaves important parts of man's nature unpractised ; it neglects the satisfaction resulting from successful labor, and it lacks the gratifying consciousness of services done to others. Egotistical enjoyments, when continually searched, grow weak ; while the desire for them is satiated in a much shorter time than our waking life gives us, thus leaving us times that are either empty or spent in efforts to attain enjoyment after the desire for it has ceased. They also grow weak from want of that broad contrast which arises when half of life is spent in active labor. The negative causes of dissatisfaction are connected with the positive cause alluded to, the absence of that content won by successful labor. One of the most solid and lasting pleasures is the feeling of personal worth, which is continually refreshed in our con- sciousness by successful action ; while an idle life is deprived in a great part of its hopes by the absence of this. Finally, the neglect of labor for others, or such labor as is felt to be in some way useful to others, brings with it the allied evils, a want of certain not easily drained positive enjoyments of the highest 74 HABIT IN EDUCATION. kind and a further craving for egotistical pleasures which then again leads to satiety." Volkmann. Spencer says: "He to whom life offers earnest work, interspersed with joyous holidays for rA:reation, will feel no ennui, and will not easily fall into pessimistic views or despair. The work should, therefore, not be made too easy ; it should not always be play for the child, although some weak parents may wish this, and some very respected pedagogues may attempt to set it up as a principle." [Humanitarianism views study as a serious business which " accustoms the apprentice by early vigorous action to diligence and industry." Philanthropism wants to render study easy in every way so that the apprentice will take pleasure in the busi- ness, and thereby awaken and foster an inclination to work in him.] Industry should furthermore not be confined to too small a space, and practise certain psychical functions to the detriment of others which are neglected ; but it should strive after harmonic development of the entire man. It has been said, that at present a broad education and a lively interest in various directions should early be implanted by instruction, as in consequence of the partition of labor, the later profession requires a condensation ; and that the youth should already be introduced into the higher ideal world as preparation for a distinct vocation, the cares and worries, of which leave little time for this after a while. But in order that this real mental interest may be awakened and fostered, the pupil should not be accustomed to learn and practise new things only, but to arrange what was formerly received, unite it with the present, and thereby gain new combinations as well as view clearly the connection of the separate parts with the whole. In this way, man is often first taught to recognize what corresponds best to his faculties, and towards which he must principally turn his power. Kern develops the following forms of instruction from the demands mentioned above. Instruction shall (i) arrange and SPECIAL HABITS. 75 rectify the conceptional comparisons already belonging to the child ; (2) widen the circle of its conception by (a) creating new ideas, (^) forming new relations between those already present. From this follows, (i) the explanatory instruction, first of all, which must prepare the way for the later stages, and form a basis for them. It divides the ideas already existing into their separate parts, and renders them clearer. Herbart thinks it particularly meritorious, but very difficult for the teacher "to find the 'entirely simple,' and dissect his own thoughts into their elements," and thus offer the child clear and comprehensible instruction. (2) The objective and developing instruction. Amos Comenius required a flawless succession of instructions ; also Pestalozzi. The latter thinks we should begirt with the easiest, and by successive progress add only a little to what has been fully learned. This produces confidence in the beginning of study, and keeps alive the consciousness of power, so that the children need only be guided, not driven. Like the house on a rock, the little new must be founded on what has formerly been acquired. The house, however, falls if the connection between it and the rocks is moved but a few lines. Jacotot laid great stress in his " ensignment universal " on the following : The representation of the new should be joined to what has been recognized, seen, comprehended ; one must learn to com- prehend one book, and then refer all that is read, heard, or learned to that ; and it will also be understood. A boy whose entire mental powers are developed and enlarged as much as possible under the same conditions, who is accus- tomed to compare all that he daily learns with what he knew the day before, and watch whether this comparison will not cause him to discover things which had not been told him ; who is continually led to look from one science into another ; who is taught to rise as easily from the special to the general as to descend again from the general to the special that boy 76 HABIT IN EDUCATION. will grow to be a genius, or we cannot grow to be anything in this world. Plato remarked that the discovery of new rela- tions between what has been acquired characterized the truly philosophic faculty, and enabled one to comprehend the gen- eral, eternal ideas. In these cases the habitude of concen- tration and a broad education can well proceed along side of each other. In the development of the mental powers, the school should not neglect the body, but should foster separate and fine motific functions during the hours for general instruction, and complex and stronger ones outside of these periods. As the child practises and strengthens certain muscle-groups by crawl- ing and walking, gymnastics will strengthen the whole organ- ism. In connection with this, gymnastic excursions and gen- eral games as well as private walks of single students, will not only serve as a recreation, but will also strengthen the body. Calisthenics give health and power, advance courage and decision, moral firmness, and strength of character; by the quickness and positiveness of the motions, a mobility of the limbs and physical grace in general are greatly favored, which is, as has been mentioned, of great importance to the entire psychical life. Hence the Greeks justly valued their gymnastics so highly as an important factor in the education of xoAoxdyo&'a ; and Jahn told his contemporaries that gymnastics was a " matter concerning all mankind, which belonged everywhere, where mortal man inhabited the world," just as Fichte calls it a vital part of education. As far as the hours of instruction are concerned, the organs of speech are practised in a natural and manifold way in speak- ing, reading, and singing ; the hand, in writing and drawing ; and the fingers, in playing on instruments, and in needlework. With writing and drawing may be combined a continuance of the habitude for cleanliness and neatness, while the aesthetic sense for regularity and beauty must be awakened and fostered. SPECIAL HABITS. 77 Before its entrance into school the child has been accustomed to articulate the sounds of its mother tongue correctly, and to use them correctly ; the school must continue this practice, and complete the verbal instruction in language by written applica- tions. Rousseau opposes the too early persuasion of children to speak. He thinks the greatest harm caused by a hasty attempt to make children speak, is twf, that our conversations and words have no meaning whatever for them, but that they con- nect an entirely different meaning with them without our know- ing it. This generally produces the surprises which speeches of children cause us, by our giving to them a meaning which the children had not at all connected with them. Lazarus points to the fact that it is specially harmful if the child from the first hears two languages and speaks them itself, for it can- not then enter deeply enough into either. The higher instruc- tion must proceed in the same way with the study of foreign languages ; the rules of grammar are not only to be studied but their use taught and practised by verbal and written exer- cises. In arithmetic habitude should make the use of the multiplication table, and the advantages of some operations in higher mathematics, the appliance of some particular rules in complicated proofs, a "second nature." As elementary geom- etry, by the comprehension and construction of the elements of space, at first practises the observing powers of the child, so the natural sciences must primarily give to the soul of the child clear impressions of natural bodies ; afterwards the instruction in natural science should lead by comparison, discrimination, and abstraction to the deduction of natural laws from separate phe- nomena. Geography no less than natural science should begin with what is most familiar, and proceed to what is foreign and less known. But the place most familiar to the child is its home. On the one hand, the paternal house, with the apple- tree in the garden on which the finches sing, is the first ground 78 HABIT IN EDUCATION. to the environs of which man is bound with bonds of steel, and from which the wider affinities of the family, the community, the race, extend to form by a close union of bonds, the great whole, the nation. On the other hand, as Kern well says : " In the mental life of the boy his home forms the standard by which he measures foreign places. He compares the size of other cities with the size of his native city or those lying near his native home. His ideas of rivers and seas are formed after the streams and ponds of his native land ; he places the hills and mountains of his immediate surroundings in thought, one upon the other, to picture to himself the mountains of foreign lands. A winter landscape gives him the first sketch for the picture he makes of the Polar regions. The general geographical ideas are not gained by explanations such as are collected in the introduc- tions to geographical hand-books, but by abstractions from the separate ideas and conceptions that he has gained by immediate observation. The boy will understand a map only when he has previously been taught to recognize the points in a carto- graphic representation of what he has actually seen." Lazarus would, therefore, like to see four maps in every school, i. A plan of the village or city; 2. the county; 3. the state or country ; 4. the grand division of the earth. The child should hunt in the first plan the street, perhaps even the house in which it lives, in order to accustom itself to the cartographic representation. " Then," says Lazarus, "it should familiarize itself with the idea that on the second map, the street can no longer be seen, and the city is only marked by a large, and in the third, by a very small circle, and disappears entirely from the last where the whole stale takes up but a very small part. The pupil should also learn that the cities, countries, and nations, even the grand divisions and their inhabitants, are no longer isolated but connected with each other by commerce, so that the products of a European state are consumed in America, India, or China ; and vice versa, he should furthermore gain SPECIAL HABITS. 79 some knowledge of the relations of private property, grounds and houses ; to state property, reads, and land, and water-ways, etc." Instruction in history, like that in religion, has the special purpose of assisting in the education of the feelings, as it awak- ens and fosters the sense for the high and ideal as well as for the moral feelings. Ancient history, by the number of sublime examples, by the simplicity and transparency of its relations, which have so often been held up to view, offers the best oppor- tunity for this. But the pupil must even here accustom himself to study, that he may gain insight by inculcation and frequent repetition ; only by a mastery of the material will he gain an insight into the connection of a separate event with a larger period, and into the relationship of this period to the whole pre- vious development ; thus he will recognize in how many ways and in which directions humanity has progressed, on what the present state of culture of his country and all the inhabitants of earth is based, and he will then be able later to form a con- ception of what its purpose and use really are. The influence of great examples in historical instruction was especially dwelt on by Montaigne. Herbert Spencer thinks that history, as now taught, has only a conventional, that is, no actual, value, as it amounts to a mere accumulation, in the memory, of numbers and dead facts from which no principles for the guidance of actions at the present time could be deducted. He demands in its place a " Natural History of Society," that is, a mention of all those facts which help us to understand the growth and organization process of a nation. He would have taught de- velopment, combination, principles, methods, prejudices, or vices of the government; formation of the church rule, its actions and omissions as well as its relations to the state ; a synopsis of the commercial system ; state of aesthetic culture as evinced by architecture, painting, etc. The child should be taught that these are members of- a whole, and how the different phases of culture blend one into the other. This descriptive sociology 8O HABIT IN EDUCATION. should be based on psychology, as it is made up of the actions of separate beings, and can be understood only by the aid of psychology. Lazarus draws attention to the fact that formerly historical instruction included only a history of wars and bat- tles, but that in the lately opened path we have been obliged to go farther, and give more history of the mental culture. Spencer and Bain especially write against the linguistic- humanistic education of the present time ; they would introduce in its place a scientific education, because it is of more use in practical life. Spencer says that grammar is the philosophy of language, and therefore, as it consists of the abstract, should be taught last instead of first, proceeding from the general prin- ciple that the concrete should be taught first, and then the abstract. Spencer and Wyse would not begin in mathematics with the general abstractions of lines and surfaces, but produce them for observation in real objects containing surfaces and lines ; then have them copied, and so on. MORAL HABITS. 8 1 CHAPTER VIII. MORAL HABITS. CONNECTION BETWEEN INTELLECT AND EMOTION. LYING. As both school and life should make morality so much of a habitude and second nature that in single actions no struggle, not even a thought of what is to be done, will be necessary, but that man will immediately do the right and good thing, so school instruction, particularly in the intellectual direction, should habituate to " thinking and speaking " by producing clearness and plainness, decision and firmness, order and cohe- rence in all mental operations. The sense of truth grown into a habit, and the habitual practice of a thorough method of observation and judgment, form the only true and developed theoretical education. Bad habits injure as much as good ones benefit. Education should, therefore, combine the positive acquirement of good habits and the negative work of not practising bad habits, and prevent the spoiling of the child by not permitting its wishes and wants to be fulfilled the moment they are expressed. The child should be weaned of all bad peculiarities, pas- sions, and emotions, laziness, inactivity, fickleness, and weak- ness of will, quarrelsomeness, and selfishness, vanity, obstinacy, and wilfulness, anger, and revenge fulness. [E. M. Arnclt places perverseness almost out of the sphere of imputability, by looking upon it as an inborn ailment, resulting from the unfortunate disposition of the parents, or conventional mar- riages without love.] This can best be done by removing the causes and incentives ; the more rarely evil traits find an opportunity of appearing and gaining strength, the more they 82 'HABIT IN EDUCATION. will lose in power, just as physical powers grow weaker when they are not practised. Where the removal of the incentives or the setting aside of all opportunities for its expression is impossible, a diversion of the attention of the child to more harmless objects, especially games, will often be very beneficial. In later years a bad inclination is conquered more easily by the introduction of an opposing stronger passion than by mere instruction ; for, though we can refute and conquer thoughts by thoughts, they are powerless against feelings as well as against the education of the energy of personal will. It is, however, an exaggeration when Herbert Spencer says : " He who would hope to give a knowledge of geometry by lessons in Latin, or expect to gain practice in drawing by the expres- sive playing of a sonata, would be considered ready for a lunatic asylum ; and yet he would scarcely be more irrational than those who hope to engender better feelings by schooling the mental faculties." Three psychical foundation processes, formerly called "soul-powers," thinking, feeling, will, con- tinually influence each other ; as the feelings and interest, the wishes and inclinations, exercise their effect on the will and thoughts, so the education of the intelligence is of vast impor- tance for the emotional life. The finer aesthetic moral and religious feelings are only possible with a high development of ideas. The fostering of a sense of honor and shame may here sup- press many evil inclinations. Many qualities which we do not approve have been produced by a former false education, and can easily be removed by avoiding the mistakes of this false method, taking the influences on the organism of nature, the season and time of day, the individual natural disposition, and momentary state of the pupil, into consideration, and making our preparations and rules of conduct accordingly. Further- more, we should attempt to keep up the good humor of the pupil during every occupation, and to produce a pleasant MORAL HABITS. 83 change between exertion and recreation during the lesson, between absorption and recollection. In the upper classes of high institutions the pupils must often be broken of the habits of card-playing, and other student-like bearing and actions, with great severity. The fiercest and most obstinate fight, how- ever, which education has to carry on is that against lying, from earliest childhood to the upper classes of gymnasiums and real- schools. Waitz speaks of the evil psychological results of the suc- cessful lie : " If, in consequence of the transgression of a com- mand, conscience has been awakened, it will be almost entirely silenced by the successful lie, for the transgression seems obviated thereby, as it has become invisible. Herein is the great danger of the lie : it permits the transgression, which it withdrew from discovery, to appear less great and important, as the feared results thereof are now happily turned away, and in this way it dulls the conscience in general." The pupil should here be made occasionally to feel, with great sever- ity, the severe consequences of lying, beside the reprimand- ing words about the disgrace of it. Basedow thought lying should be caused to result in misfortune to the children them- selves, that by this misfortune they may be diverted therefrom ; they should also be accustomed not to feel ashamed of the confession. With half-grown boys and young men, however, who are not habitual liars, it will have a very good effect to teach them to look upon a lie as something terrible, by evidences of confidence, and in this way to brand it silently as dishonorable cowardice, and deserving of shame. Most lies are not the result of an inclination thereto, or of natural villany, but of the effort to withdraw from a momentary difficulty ; they are used by children to avoid smaller or larger punishments, with- out their valuing the truth in the same way in which we must. They look upon language as a supply of means to reach their purpose. But what we should see to is, that when questioned about what took place, they tell the truth. 84 HABIT IN EDUCATION. Jean Paul is not far wrong when he says : " In the first five years our children say no true word and no lying one ; they only talk. Their speaking is a loud thinking; but as often one-half of a thought is yes, and the other no, and they (un- like us) utter both, they appear to lie, while they only speak to themselves. Furthermore, they enjoy playing with the art of speech new to them ; thus they often speak nonsense, only to listen to their own knowledge of language." Children give their imaginative ideas a reality, and do not know how to dis- tinguish subjective thinking and objective reality ; they are involuntary poets. Ruegg says : " Already in the second year of life more frequently in later ones the child will drink comfortably from an empty cup, eat out of an empty dish, and gladly share these meals with those around him. It can feed birds which are not present, and not even represented by any- thing, and it will often grow excited, and sad, or angry, when some one walks over the place and drives the imagined birds away." These phenomena of child-life are also found among uncultivated barbaric races Tyler tells of a woman in Van Diemen's Land who addressed four or five stones as though they were her distant relatives. The imaginative conceptions of children appear particularly in their play, and there receive the privileges of reality. A boot- jack, a foot-stool, becomes a horse on which the child rides, a doll which it sings to sleep. If, therefore, there is in their play a certain danger, the inability to distinguish subjective and ob- jective facts, which actual life must remove, this is, nevertheless, of pedagogical importance in forming the imagination and changing passive imagination, which devotes itself more to the impressions received from without and the change of the encited ideas, into active imagination, which creates these conceptions itself, and makes a selection between those offer- ing themselves. If the playthings of children are, however, to accomplish this latter object, they should not consist, as is MORAL HABITS. 85 mostly the case at present, of already finished copies of real forms and objects, which leave no room for the imagination ;. but they should contain rough pieces of wood, building-blocks, etc., which the child must form into something, either imitat- ing objects it has seen, or inventing new ones, and thus exer- cising his imagination. We may, indeed, often observe that the child will much rather play with the old, roughly-fashioned horse and the shapeless doll, than with elegant new toys, which are very similar to the real objects they represent ; it can make something out of the former, but not out of the latter. Furthermore, the plays of children should not be systematized ; they should give the individual an opportunity for the distinct development of its fancy. Rousseau also shows that the mania children sometimes have for destroying things does not arise from ill temper, but from the lively desire for action, the wish to change the condition of things ; they sometimes break their toys in consequence of a craving of their imagination to see what is in or behind them. Neither do they lie from natural badness, but allow themselves to be carried away by the interest of their story, and give a reality to suddenly arising conceptions, and thus mingle truth and fiction. Jean Paul tells of a girl who often pictured visions of the Christ-child to him, and told him what it had done and said, while when directly questioned, the girl always spoke the truth. I was myself told by a lady who now writes very good poems, and therefore possesses a lively imagination, that when a child she related stories to her friends and relatives, which she said were dreams of the preceding night, the separate ideas of which, however, did not appear until she began to relate them. This was not a wicked propensity " to bind up upon others," but the pleasure in relating and " composing." And there may be many such young poetesses ; girls have many small stratagems at their command, and are especially strong in " fibbing." Such things should not be condemned as ill-natured lies, but neither 86 HABIT IN EDUCATION. should they be smiled at and permitted to reach their purpose ; boasting and exaggerations by children should be met with solemn silence. Especially the parents themselves and others about the child should not accustom it to lying by making use of social lies. Education should not treat this fancying habit of children too severely as a lie, but gradually break them of it EXTREME HABITUATION. 8? CHAPTER IX. EXTREME HABITUATION. ILL EFFECTS OF THIS IN GENERAL. THREE THEORIES CONCERN- ING THE EMOTIONS. NECESSITY OF CHANGE IN INSTRUCTION. PUNISHMENTS. HIGHER AESTHETIC FEELING. PREJUDICE. PEDANTRY.: LAW OF RELATIVENESS. EDUCATION should also prevent the spoiling of children. No one should be accustomed too much, still less entirely, to the use of one function, so that the ability to perform it will not grow into a necessity and the power of free personal decision will not be lost, and it will not be difficult to change or modify it as soon as circumstances should require this. In this regard, if for habitude we make use of its extreme degree, Rousseau is not far wrong when he says : "The only habit which a child should be permitted to acquire is this, that it habituate itself to nothing in particular." "We should not carry it oftener on one arm than on the other ; not accustom it to give one hand in preference to the other or use it oftener ; always to eat, sleep, and be active at the same hour, or to be able to remain alone neither by day nor night. Help the child from afar to assume the rule of personal liberty and the use of its power by leaving its natural habits to the body, by bringing the child to be always master of itself and always to follow only its own will as soon as it shall have one." But this too close accustoming to one habit is particularly hurtful to the emotional life. It is true, as Rous- seau and many others have likewise taught, that in educational matters one age shall not be sacrificed to a following one, nor its pleasures curtailed, but each should keep its joy, and the 88 HABIT IN EDUCATION. child should retain" cheerfulness and joy in life and labor not- withstanding all exertion. Lazarus therefore looks upon every labor imposed as a punishment, as a pedagogical mistake, since it spoils the child's pleasure in work in general. Every act of the pedagogue should be not only a means for the better ac- complishment of the following one, nor alone self-sufficient, but both together. The child should be given time for recreation and play, free choice in the variety of the latter, and by this means its pleasure in play. Lazarus here shows a fault/ of the kindergarten system, which otherwise has so many good points. It does not let the child have a free choice of the play, but forces it to join in, though it be only by a stern glance. The adult should mix as little as possible with the play of the child, , and leave it mostly to its own resources and ideas. But it should not be accustomed too much to material enjoyments, that is, spoiled. It should find appreciation for good work, but it should not be rewarded by sensual joys, or compensated for every exertion ; it should learn by-and-by to look upon the feeling of satisfaction which follows every labor that has been well done, as the best and only reward. Not until education has found an opportunity of drawing the pupil's attention to his better self by deeply impressive approval (not exactly praise) will it work well. Censure will not find willing ears until it has ceased to stand alone as a minus quantity ; let it threaten to demolish, in part, approval already gained, and the effect will be much greater. Thus, he only will feel the pres- sure of self-reproach who has gained some self-respect, and is afraid of losing it. The pupil who is only censured will grow ill-humored when the teacher will not take him as he is. Fen- elon, the tutor of the princes of France, only succeeded in curing his princely pupil of his ugly traits by not withholding approval of his good qualities, and encouraging him in their exercise. Fenelon justly observed that the tutor should attempt less to gain the fear than the love of his pupils, as man will EXTREME HAB1TUATION. 89 easily adopt the manners and thoughts of those he loves. Time devoted to play should not be offered too often and in too large quantities. Herbart says it requires but little to please children in various ways when great temperance is the daily habit, and Lazarus truly remarks : " Man should be accus- tomed to enjoyment of life, but not to a life of enjoyment" The spoiling of a child by frequent, unnecessary pleasures, by artificial enjoyments which do not include somewhat of labor and practice, is detrimental, because the dulness of sensitive feeling which is engendered thereby does away with many small aids to discipline, which can be used with good result by children not thus spoiled. Very early the crying of children should not be hushed every time by all sorts of quieting meas- ures and small pleasures, only that the mother and all others present may not be disturbed. Rousseau says : " So long as the child cries I do not go to it at all, but I return to it the moment it ceases. Soon it will call me by being quiet, or per- haps uttering only a single cry." Children determine the mean- ing of their cries by their visible effects ; they have no other test. A child will rarely cry if it is alone, no matter how severely it has hurt itself, unless it hopes to be heard. If the child sees that we are greatly worried about it, and console and pity jt, . it will deem itself lost ; but if we make no great ado about it, it will soort forget the pain. Wilfulness is often trained into older children by granting that which should be denied, through weakness, or a desire to have rest from the pleadings of the child. Thus have we arrived at the last stage of our investigation, which concerns the injuriousness of habituation when carried to the extreme. We saw that not only bad habits, but all which were carried to the extreme, have an injurious effect, especially on the emotions. This latter point we will look at a little closer. Feeling is " the manner in which consciousness or self-con- QO HABIT IN EDUCATION. sciousness every moment reacts on what is taking place within." The conception itself always expresses only the immediate reciprocal effect of a connection of consciousness with the external world. The emotions, however, picture the manner in which the consciousness, by reason of its entire condition, its lasting and momentary inclinations, receives the reciprocal effect. . . . Wundleband says : " Every conception is in a cer- tain relation to the whole psychical system in which it appears, and this relation is expressed in the accompanying emotion. We can, in general, distinguish three theories concerning the emotions, among which there are, however, manifold connec- tions and mediations : i . The emotions are a special action of the faculty of perception, a dark perceptive power. 2. The emotions proceed from a reciprocal action of the conceptions. 3. The emotions are the condition in which the soul is placed by its conceptions and perceptions." This view is very ancient, and can be found expressed in the old theory of the soul's pow- ers. A distinct peculiarity of emotional life is that it continu- ally vibrates between the opposites of pleasure and displeasure, and is heightened in intensity by the contrast. A person who has been sick feels more comfort on the return of his health than one who rejoices in steady good health. Preceding sor- row causes joy, and vice versa, former happiness, present mis- fortune, and pain, to be felt far mofe keenly. The hatred which develops from the change of former love is the most severe. Campe explains the phenomena, that things which formerly impressed us with decided displeasure, then grew bearable and indifferent, finally even pleasant, or that what was formerly pleasant may gradually have an unpleasant effect, because the contrast, which was very strong in the beginning, grows weaker after some time. As an example of the former case he mentions that galley-slaves do not feel their terrible fate as much after ten years as on the first day, and in proof of the latter he cites Shakespeare's, " If the entire year consisted of EXTREME HABITUATION. Ql holy play-days, celebrations would be as noxious as labor." Pleasures, of whatever kind, are subject to the motto, " variatio delectat." Sensual, as well as higher emotions, require a change, if they shall continue in their original strength. If this change is not offered, the reaction of consciousness on the inner action, the emotion, will grow weaker in proportion to the frequency of its repetition in a similar manner ; and will finally change to the exact opposite ; we lose the interest in things which always bring us the same impressions ; they grow indifferent, tiresome, and finally excite disgust and repugnance ; the highest joy and the strongest passion are weakened by time, and we gradually grow accustomed to the pain which was at first very severe. The pedagogue must bear this fact in mind. The pupil should be granted a change, not only from exertion to recrea- tion, "concentration and recollection," but also in the manner of his recreation and play as well as the mode of his exertion. The time devoted to a certain subject of instruction, a single work, cannot be abnormally lengthened. The pupil should not do now this, now that, and thus weaken his powers, but neither should the instruction and the repetition be made tiresome to him ; his interest must be continually kept alive by an illumi- nation of different points of the same subject. " To be tire- some is the greatest crime of the instructor." Every conception has, so to say, a maximum of clearness for each separate person ; if we attempt to retain it in conscious- ness long after it has reached this point, we must use great exertion, and may not succeed after all. On the contrary, a condition will be produced which permits just those concep- tions contrasting to the former ones to arise. The same is shown in the mental life of nations and man- kind. When an idea has reached the highest point of its power, and rules the separate minds, taking up a great deal of their attention, the antithetical one will gradually appear, grow in strength and develop its greatest power when the first has 92 HABIT IN EDUCATION. decayed and outlived itself. In after ages it may again appear. K. Schmid, in speaking of the difference between modern enlightenment and that of former times, remarks : " One ex- treme calls forth the other. The religious mental powers draw too firmly and too much in the same direction during the period of the abstract theological view of the world and educa- tion ; they awaken the similarly one-sided thinking powers, and these now assume the judgment-seat to inquire how they may be justified by the former existence of science, and what has been historically developed, and is actually present in general. The mind criticises the existing religion, and before this criti- cism the positive truths of the latter are dissolved into general intellectual expressions." Habit dulls the feeling for rewards, and still more that for punishments ; the teacher should therefore see that he does not use too strict measures in the beginning, but according to circumstances, make use of admonitions, threats, and mild reproofs, and only when these are of no avail employ sterner punishments to insure a gradation to himself. Waitz says : " We should never use a stronger measure when we can get along with a weaker one." But he advises severe measures from the beginning when it is intended to obviate the bad results of a former too lenient training. Physical punishments were particularly in vogue before the Reformation. Thomas Platter, in his autobiography, gives a sad description of this fact. Even some time after the Refor- mation the motto " He who loves his child should punish it " was generally followed. In the last century, when the philan- thropists who received their name from their desire to make instruction easy for the pupils, arose, the schoolmaster Hauberle in a small city of Swabia made a note of the punishments he had inflicted during an activity of 52 years. He gave 911,527 strokes with a cane, 124,010 cuts with a rattan, 20,989 cuts on fingers and hands with the ruler, 136,715 strokes -with his hand, EXTREME HABITUATION. 93 10,235 strokes on the mouth, 7,905 boxes on the ear, 1,115,800 punches of the head, and 22,763 extras with Bible, catechism, hymn-book, and grammar ; 777 times he had boys kneel on peas, and 613 times on three-cornered pieces of wood ; 5,001 had to wear the dunce-cap, and 1,707 hold up the rattan ; 800,000 of the cuts with the cane were given for Latin vocables, and 76,000 of the rattan strokes for biblical texts and verses from the hymnal. He made use of about 3,000 invectives and words of abuse, of which his native tongue supplied about two-thirds, and one-third were due to his own invention. On the other hand, we have the words of " Walther von der Wogelweide," " No one can train the child with the rod " ; and Amos Comenius's remark, " Blows and strokes have not the power to bring love for the sciences into the heads of children, but may often cause a disgust for them." Bain says : " Pain is a waste of brain power, while the work of the student requires the highest form of this power. Whatever the punishment accomplishes is at the cost of a great loss of power, which loss increases when the punishment is looked upon with actual fear. Every one has perhaps met with cases in which a pupil was rendered wholly unfit to finish the given work by fear." The moral feeling, the conscience, is often like the emotions and the feelings of honor weakened by habit, as the latter causes greater negligence in the examination of motives. The higher aesthetic feeling needs change. Works of art must be viewed from various points, if the enjoyment of them is to remain the same. Religious instruction is destined to offer man the highest things and touch the mind in all its depths : to gain this the teacher should take into consideration not only the influence of the hours of the day, and the disposi- tion of the pupil, and therefore choose a proper time when the mental functions have not grown weary by many preceding hours of study ; but the hours of instruction should not occur too frequently. The instruction in religion should compare to 94 HABIT IN EDUCATION. the other lessons as Sunday to the week days. Teacher and pupil must approach it with a solemn feeling. The feeling of solemnity and elevation can, however, at least with children, only be deep and continue in the same intensity for some time, when its repetition does not take place too often. Nothing can affect us with solemnity which has in any way become a habit ; not every day can be a Sabbath ; only the unusual retains the power of taking entire possession of the soul. Lessing says in one of his works : " Only that will impress us as miraculous, a conception of which appears but rarely in the chain of our ideas. On a diligent student of the Bible the greatest miracle which is described in the Scriptures will no longer make the same impression as it did the first time he heard or read it. ... The miracle remains the same, but our frame of mind changes when we think it over too often." This is not contradictory to what has been said before : the adult will find the more sup- ports for his religious belief, the oftener he has experienced the love, wisdom, and omnipotence of his Creator in his own life. The new physiologic-psychology has shown the importance of the so-called psycho-physical law. This shows that the strength of the emotion does not increase in the same measure as the external irritation, but that mathematically expressed, the emo- tions grow like the logarithms when the irritations increase in their intensity like the figures, or that the emotion grows like the logarithm of the irritation. This law is of great importance not only for the impressions of the senses, but also for the emotions and the will. Already in the last century, Daniel Bernouille and Laplace remarked that the inner feeling of hap- piness, which Laplace calls " fortune morale," is proportional to the logarithm of external possessions, " fortune physique," or in other words, that the satisfaction grows in arithmetical progression, when the possession is increased in geometrical progression; viz., a man who owns $1,000 and gains $100 more has the same feeling of satisfaction which another who EXTREME IIABITUATION. 95 owns only 100 and gains $10 more, feels. If this feeling is not retained by a corresponding increase in the same intensity, or strengthened, a craving for it will grow to a strong power and seek satisfaction. In the same way in which this is the case with the external material possessions it will also happen with ambition, the mental possession we have in the souls of others (the "enlarging of self-confidence in and through others"). The craving for honor and renown grows in increasing degrees the more man has already accomplished. In the description of characters such as Napoleon I., too little regard is often paid to the fact that these phenomena are based on a psychological law. A man who rose so high must find it difficult, even impossible, to control the unmeas- ured growth of the craving for honor and ambition. In the same way, his contempt of mankind which is so often mentioned, is explained to a large degree by his descent, his disposition as a cold and abstract-thinking mathematician ; furthermore, by the time of his rising, the French Revolution ; and finally, by his whole life, which, on innumerable battle-fields, hardened him, and rendered him insensible to the sufferings of man. Even Spencer, although he particularly says that the emotions and hate prevent correct judgment, and gives a chapter the special heading "The Prejudices of Patriotism," does not seem to be free from such prejudices when he pictures Napo- leon I. as dark as he does in his " Introduction to the Study of Sociology." Doubtless these phenomena deserve the attention of the pedagogue. The wishes of the pupils are to be turned aside in many ways, and diversion should be offered them by a change of the conceptions, so that the desire bound to a narrow space will not grow with too great rapidity. Kern says : " Every conception may be followed by a desire. The more change there is in the world of ideas, the more will one desire supplant another ; the more the circle of thoughts is widened, the larger 96 HABIT IN EDUCATION. also will be the range of desire ; and the oftener a certain desire returns, the more foundation will the idea with which it is connected gain, and the stronger will it therefore grow. If it is not suppressed by another desire or by conceptions which are more powerful than those on which it depends, it will not cease until it has been satisfied." The child should, therefore, not be spoiled by material enjoy- ments, because his wishes widen and grow in the same propor- tion in which they are satisfied. The better pupils should early be protected against immeasurable ambition and egotism. As oft-repeated desires and strong passions grow to an immense strength, and can, as is well known, " put things info man's head," so the conceptions connected with them will grow to " fixed ideas " which continually increase in possession of the domain of consciousness, and finally lead to complete insanity. Aside from these pathological phenomena every extreme habituation has a very harmful influence on the intellectual life by narrowing the circle of conceptions, allowing man to grow rusty in the old relations and views, and making a pedant of him. Firm, rigid lines are formed wherever a small number of conceptions return uniformly in greater degrees of clearness. Hence arises that stiff pedantry which threatens schoolmen, chancery clerks, etc., especially when aided by the melancholy or phlegmatic temperament found here quite as often as it is rare among artists and practitioners of every kind, whose vocations press them on to ever-new combinations. Women are less liable to pedantry than men. The union of the conceptions of words, and the designations of objects, is especially close, so that to many it seems identical. For those who know only their mother tongue it must seem almost incomprehensible how the object which is not only called bread, but actually is bread, can be called differently in another language. The habits of thought, which otherwise, as artifices, are of great advantage to the rapidity of the intellectual EXTREME HABITUATION. 97 functions, can also lead to extreme one-sidedness and cause manifold disappointments. Thus the mathematician will some- times treat everything after the method of his science. " In handling questions that the concrete sciences offer, he recog- nizes only a few of the factors, quietly gives these a positiveness which they do not possess, and proceeds in a mathematical way by drawing positive decisions from these premises as though they were specific and sufficient." Herbert Spencer. He who never left his native home, who never had an op- portunity of recognizing " many men's minds," remains bound in the conceptional range of his parents and ancestors. Among the higher classes the views concerning social rank which are developed by inheritance, education, condition, and habit, grow to rank-prejudices if the pupil is not early enough ac- quainted with a wider outlook. Not only instruction, but even stern measures of discipline, are sometimes needed to conquer such rank-prejudices. Bain investigates the " Law of Rel- ativeness," which is of value to the emotions (effect of contrast) as well as to the mind, and the most distinct characteristic feature of which is the dependence of the intensity of conscious- ness on the grade of transitions from one impression to another. While Hobbs remarks, " It is almost immaterial to a person whether he always perceives the same object or nothing," Bain thinks he should have said wholly, for it is a well-known fact that an unchanged impression on our senses, if lasting any length of time, has the same influence as none at all. " A change of the impression," he says, " is necessary if we shall grow conscious of it." The feeling of heat is no absolute, independent, self- subsisting condition of the mind, but the consequence of a transition from cold ; the perception of light is dependent on a transition from darkness or shade into light. To use a common . example, a watch-maker is not conscious of the uninterrupted ticking of his watches ; but if they suddenly all stopped, he would become aware of the pause. In exertions of mind and body 98 HABIT IN EDUCATION. the ability is greatest immediately after the condition of rest. The power is at its height when the renewed nerves start afresh, and sinks the more we approach the point of exhaustion. From this hypothesis we may picture to ourselves that, when all the parts of the brain are in perfect equilibrium and constantly remain on the same height, when none begin to grow stronger or weaker, consciousness or feeling will be zero, the mind will be at rest. A disturbance of this condition awakens consciousness for a time ; a further interruption gives it a new impulse, and so on : besides, the variety of the impressions influencing the mind in a waking condition will prevent perfect equilibrium from again taking place. In unison with this is the nature of the mind, so rich in changes ; the line of consciousness may be more easily likened to a series of explosions than a quiet, steady stream. The fact that we generally retain the impression of rest is only due to the excitement's being so unimportant and temperate ; as soon as the intensity of feeling increases, the ex- plosive character becomes very prominent. The mind begins to work by distinguishing. The conscious- ness of difference is the beginning of every mental activity. To receive a new impression is to notice changes. Man has a power of distinguishing more or less fineness in sight, sounds, smell, taste, and touch impressions. Here is the deepest cause of the inequality in intellectual powers, as well as the variety in the directions of taste. The fineness and tenderness in the feeling of difference is the measure for the variety and number of our first impressions, and therefore of our treasured memories. A too long continuation of the same impression is followed by a weakening of consciousness; and monotony, as is well known, has a stupefying effect. Everything new and strange will awaken our attention and our interest more than the habitual impres- sions which we received from the old accustomed conditions ; the logical thinking-power and energy are hereby challenged to activity and fired on. Inversely logical processes of thought EXTREME HABITUATION. 99 which took place frequently grow to associated ones in which the will is less active. Actions which were formerly performed with the conscious will are gradually transformed by habit into reflex motions, become fixed, and are in this form transmitted as dispositions to later generations. Habit is its own worst enemy, because old habits oppose the introduction of new ones. Extreme habituation also has a detrimental effect on the will- activity, because it permits it to come forward less, and changes all thoughts and actions into mechanical ones, robs man of his free self-determination, and makes a slave of him. A servile education can, in the most favorable cases, only create a series of good, steady habits, which themselves, aside from the fact that they are only means for morality and not this itself, leave men in the lurch in extraordinary cases and a prey to perplex- ing indecision. Now, undoubtedly, mechanism in thought and action is not to be absolutely rejected. Power is saved by many mechanically executed functions which may be of use in other directions. Wundt therefore describes it as an important aid which the associations give to the logical thought-processes performed with conscious will, by forming on the one hand the preparation for apperceptive union (what is uniformly united in time and space will with pre-eminent ease also be united in the function of judgment), and on the other hand by taking the place of these processes after they have repeatedly happened. Further- more, certain purposes are reached by mechanism as well as by the conscious will-action ; yes, sometimes more easily and surely, because reflection does not disturb them by coming between, causing delay, or leading astray by mistakes. Finally, man is often brought to himself and led to conscious, energetic thought and action by labors which he at first performed mechanically. Educators and teachers should, however, favor mere mechan- ism as little in all other psycho-physical processes as in the thoughtless memorizing of that which the pupil has not IOO HABIT IN EDUCATION. understood and comprehended. Lazarus points out that even in teaching writing and reading, all that is written or read should contain nothing incomprehensible to the child. He thinks, "No conception should enter the head that is not understood." Roschow writes, " Only the comprehension of what is taught renders instruction useful." Daily experience teaches us that we generally think least about what we formerly adopted mechanically ; that, therefore, what is thoughtlessly acquired in most cases receives no further thought. HABIT AND FREE WILL. IOI CHAPTER X. HABIT AND FREE WILL. GENIUS. INSANITY. HAS not all education this one purpose, that the pupil shall do consciously, and with free self-decision, what moral instruc- tion impresses upon him, what in the beginning, however, he does only by compulsion from parents or teachers, as well as from habit ? Education should create a will which harmo- nizes with the insight determined by the moral ideas. The intel- ligence formed by instruction should not be an idle one, but should pass into the will, and therefore education does not want a will so much as a will proceeding from the moral intelli- gence. " Education must enable the youth to enjoy the liberty of self-decision." Spencer demands the personal action of the pupil in contrast to mere reproductive reception during the time of instruction ; the child itself shall learn to observe. Montaigne and Rousseau demanded, above all, independent judgment of the pupil. The former laid : " The bees gather sweets from the flowers here and there, but they make honey thereof which is entirely their own ; . it is neither thyme nor gentian. In the same way the pupil will change and transform that which he borrows from others, and make therefrom a work wholly his own. The man shall not retain the jurare in rcr/>a magistri as the main principles of his thoughts and quiet himself with the ipse dixit, but shall understand how to form an inde- pendent judgment for himself !" It is true the antmal by aid of its instinct easily and surely performs useful actions, and the man proceeding in a mere mechanical way often reaches the IO2 HABIT IN EDUCATION. goal more quickly than he who attempts to gain a perfect com- prehension of the causes and consequences of his actions by reflections. It may be true, for example, that the laborer would not perform his labor better and quicker than he now does if lie knew exactly how his psycho-physical organism, his nerves, muscles, etc., were acting, what value his action has for mankind in general, and the state in particular and what place the results of his labor occupy in the commerce of the world, but it is sim- ply more worthy of a man to know why, how, and wherefore he thinks and does this, or allows that process to go on. Most persons will here perhaps be reminded of- Schiller's words : " We must despise the idle man Who never thinks of how he deals; For this is still what graces man, For which alone his mind expands, That in his inmost heart he feels What he created with his hands." The conceptions of the cause, the means, and the reason, need not be clear in the mind during the function itself, and man need not render to himself an account of every minute particular of his actions every moment of his life. After the plan has once been thoroughly considered and adopted, reflec- tion should no longer interrupt the action. But these concep- tions should always remain on the outskirts of consciousness and be ready to be raised to clear consciousness on any inducement ; while we use the mechanism of the body and the mental processes to reach our object quickly and easily. If, now, we finally consider the culmination of all human men- tal action, Genius, we shall find that here also habitude may have fatal results. If the practitioner needs in every action ever new combinations and different ways of employing the acquired knowledge which habit does not give him, Genius is also distinguished by the rapid and unusual combination of the various elements of the mental matter which outer and inner HABIT AND FREE WILL. IO3 experience have given it. All clever remarks and humor, as well as their results, depend on the newness and the uncom- monness of the union of separate elements of experience. The difference between these and the action of genius is, however, determined by the lower or higher degree of value which they have for things universally, the progress of culture in a nation, and mankind generally. It is the newness and originality of such combinations which distinguish the mentally conspicuous from the " en gross " men who habitually form only the same or slightly modified combinations as education and life have taught them and as the general custom seems to be. "Thoughts live very close together " in the minds of genius and can easily enter into combination. And this ease in changing and combining is prevented by habit, which appoints to every conception its dis- tinct dwelling-place in a larger community. Where conceptions are directed by lines to certain places and courses, that free mobility on which their combination into new forms rests is excluded. The mental or habitual firmness of the lines destroys the fluidity which lends its charm to the rising conceptions. To this may be added, that lines which are frequently reproduced unchanged, finally lead their links past us so rapidly that an investigation of their condition is no longer possible ; and we are as much at a loss to comprehend the action after it has passed by as before it began. The close blending of lines of this order almost deprives them of their individual character, and renders them similar to impressions of the whole, in which all is simultaneously seen, or heard, or felt. And yet education can do a great deal for genius ; and the formation of its habits is of the utmost importance. Comenius says : " Genius is most in need of discipline and education, for it is like a fertile soil, which, unnurtured and uncared for, bears the most weeds, the most thorns." We evidently go too far when we deny to education all good influence on the minds of genius, as Christman declares ; gen- IO4 HABIT IN EDUCATION. iuses generally have teachers who possess no genius themselves ; or, as Lichtenberg says : " If education succeeded in wholly forming the children under its influence, we should soon have no more great men." It is true, that the disposition which education is unable to create must have existed before, and that by aid of this the pupil may outstrip his master ; but it is likewise known that a want of good education causes the finest talents to become weak, and is the cause of the misfortune of so many geniuses. Education accustoms the genius to diligence, by which alone he may hope to develop the powers slumbering within him ; it teaches him to beware of scattering his powers, and to concen- trate his actions in those fields to which his eminent talents particularly point ; but it does not confine him to these exclu- sively, and gives him a manifold interest ; it forms in him the disposition for order and regularity, " the serious guidance of life." In consequence of the rapid "tempo of thinking," the easy mobility of the conceptions, the genius is often in danger of too great mental variability and distraction, of too rapid changes in the motives for actions, and in these themselves, in feelings and wishes whereby a moral character is rendered more difficult of attainment, sometimes even impossible. An attempt to bring the fundamental disposition into a steady relation with the separate feelings and passing moods leads to the contrast between comfortable and ingenious natures. The character of cheerfulness is the result of a firm, almost anxious hold on a certain fundamental disposition, which generally con- tains a medium share of seriousness and humor, and all the local tones of the separate feelings and moods are pitched according to this fundamental tone ; while in ingenious natures, the fundamental disposition seems to be abandoned to the power of momentary humor and even strong single feelings. The one makes age comfortable or peevish ; the other explains the flood and ebb tide of joy great as the heavens, and grief HABIT AND FREE WILL. 10$ dark as the grave in youthfully animated hearts. A cheerful, comfortable disposition impresses us with a certain cordiality, while the variability of genius appears youthful ; both are want- ing in reverence for separate feelings, and when combined with maturity, they appear almost abnormal. In so far as good nature consists in keeping the disposition pure and clear, it forms the complement to a character bent on the purity of demeanor ; the restlessness of genius finds more than a mere complement in a life ruled by the passions. It should be remembered that the development and retention of a moral character when it has not by education from early youth become a habit requires effort, but that geniuses use their greatest power in intellectual labor. Enhanced mental efforts cause certain reactions which explain many things. Shakespeare's and Fielding's Wild Tavern Life. Jurgen and Bona Meyer. Education enables the youth to control himself, and by habit to acquire firm principles for the basis of his character. The man of conspicuous mental capacity is destined to create some- thing new, and raise education generally to a higher level ; he is, therefore, in advance of his contemporaries, and often not under- stood by them. The following expression of Lessing's is well known : " To be considered a great mind for half a century after one's death is but a poor proof that such is actually the case ; but to be thought so through centuries is a proof not to be gainsaid. The contrary is likewise true. That a writer is not read by his contemporaries and their grandchildren is a misfortune, but not yet a proof against his worth ; only when the grandchildren of the grandchildren should never care to read his works, then is it true that he never deserved to be read." The consciousness of a man's worth comes into conflict with external circumstances which do not offer him the necessary encouragement or the opportunity to carry out his reform ideas ; IO6 HABIT IN EDUCATION. thus great irritation is apt to be engendered against any contra- diction he may meet with ; also undue exaltation and an over- valuing of his own personal worth. Rein, in speaking of Pestalozzi, remarks that the fault of all autodidactics has ever been one-sidedness, and an over-valuing of that, which left to their own resources, they discovered with great labor ; stern misfortunes, together with the consciousness of pure will, render a rough tone more pardonable ; great cele- brity and praise from every side are apt to make men irritable towards rare contradiction. Genius will easily adopt the ten- dency to bitterness and variance with life in general, which feeling only very rarely rises to the nature of humor. The latter has incorrectly been termed the height of true genius, and cultivated as such, while in reality it is only a decay, an arrest of true genius, and represents only a passing stage within it. In the rash impulsiveness of youth a genius will attempt to break through the bounds set him, and thoughtlessly battle against necessity ; where he is deprived of the opportunity to do this, the discord within him leads to bitterness, despair, yes, even to an over-clouding of the mind, insanity. The similarity between genius and insanity has often been pointed out : les extremes se touchent; the mentally deranged and the sick person are in nearly related conditions. Maudsley studied not only the similarity between genius and insanity, as well as other eccentric dispositions, but also the relations in which they appear to each other in heredity. Strange to say, a deeper investigation will bring the result that original inspirations, decided evidences of a talent, or even of genius, often proceed from individuals who come from a family in which there was a certain predisposition to insanity. Such persons can take up and develop additional ideas which a sober brain would never have found, and by the aid of this side-light discover unsuspected relations. The person endowed with a temperament disposed to insanity may, according to HABIT AND FREE WILL. circumstances, either grow actually insane or give to the world new ideas and deeds. We may observe that one member of a family, because he entered a congenial field of labor, will go through life undisturbed, while another member of the same family falls into hopeless insanity because he is less fortunately placed. It frequently happens that some members of a family are actually insane, while others excel by an eccentric character or are conspicuous for some time by an excited restless demean- or, which afterwards changes into insanity. . . . The disposition to insanity is led to break forth into actual mental derangement by physical pain, the pressure of external conditions, and mental excitement of any kind. Maudsley even points out the close relation between a disposition for insanity and an inclination towards crime ; he shows that criminals are often descended from families in which insanity or some other form of neurosis is at home, and that there have been cases in which one mem- ber of a family became insane while another member grew into a spendthrift, a worthless fellow, yes, even a criminal. He looks upon crime in such cases as a kind of fontanelle by which the unhealthy inclinations of the criminal find vent : such individuals would become insane if they did not turn criminals, and they only keep free of insanity by becoming criminals. A proper and good education is the only bulwark against such dangers; it gives the genius a feeling of respect for authority and reigning circumstances ; it teaches him to submit to necessity where the strife cannot benefit mankind, but will only bring himself unmeasured harm ; it enables him to remain passive, but also to become active the moment his action may be useful. By preparing the way for self-discipline it gives him the greatest aid in the strife with himself and life in general, retains the clearness and health of his thoughts, and develops the morality of his character. Maudsley and many others call our attention to the following fact. The education of the intelligence and the character may IO8 HABIT IN EDUCATION. conquer the inherited predisposition for insanity, and prevent crimes from taking place, by training and disciplining the " insane temper." ... If we carefully give to the will the power of ruling our thoughts and feelings, we create within ourselves a power which assures us of continued mental health. The power of the will will even aid frequently in remedying a disturbance but just begun. Returning health in mental disease is always announced by an increase of will-power, and a recov- ery of complete health is possible when the derangement is not caused by organic changes, but is only functional. Concerning the relation of separate ingenious actions to the mental activity of the masses, Lazarus is no doubt right when he says : " Ingenious tact finds many things that science seeks in vain. But the time has come, and is well prepared, for an advance from ingenious tact to methodical discipline, and a transformation of the sporadic labors of genius into the work of a special, conscious, continuing, and uniformly rising science. . . . Though the genius retain his exclusive position, he can- not procure a general currency for his ideas unless he finds men who will take the trouble to accustom the present and future generations to the reception and development of these ideas." The true greatness of prominent men does not consist in their being praised and flattered by their contemporaries and pos- terity, in their celebrated name resounding through the land, but in the fact that future generations particularly the edu- cated classes receive their ideas and make them their own. The man of great mental capacity, prominent above others, scatters his thoughts abroad ; but it is the business of the edu- cators and teachers to lighten the soil and prepare the ground, that the seed of ideas may be received and bear good fruit. Beside the restlessly progressive power creating new things must be another which protects it from excesses, keeps it in bounds, and by quiet steady labor lets mankind in general recognize the value of the good the former has created, without entirely overthrowing the existing order of thjr^v HABIT AND FREE WILL. Many a one who expressed new and original ideas lacked the power of realizing them and practically applying the rules he himself gave (Rousseau, Pestalozzi, etc.) . Genius in art and science is little adapted to practical business. Though the poet J. Von Zedlitz claims that nothing great is accomplished in this world without enthusiasm, the words of Jean Paul, who says. " Only the whole is created by enthusiasm ; its parts are developed by calm thought," are no less tins ! Reform ideas will find a willing reception only when genius does not want practical men who realize his thoughts in calm, steady action ; when a restraining and calm power accompanies the one regard- lessly assaulting existing affairs. Thus the impetuous Luther found a true friend and assistant in the calm Melanchthon, who, with his usual clearness, perspicuity, and knowledge, gave the world-moving ideas of the Reformation their dogmatic expres- sion, and in theology as well as philosophy became the " teacher of Germany." Maudsley truly remarks that " the ideal world of man is ruled by antagonistic powers as well as the course appointed to the planets : A centrifugal or revolutionary power gives the ex- pansive impulse to new ideas, a centripetal or conservative power appears in the restraining habit, and the result of these contrasts determines the direction in which the mental development pro- gresses" When the formation of habits is used in the proper way, if it is not carried to the extreme by contracting the limits of conceptions favoring mere mechanism, and weakening the emotions, but teaches how the danger of distraction may be avoided, a concentration of power united with varied and mani- fold interests be acquired, how man may retain his free self-deci- sion and develop his character, how the feeling of happiness is increased by the regularity of work and recreation, it will be the main aid of education in giving man or mankind "what he might have developed from within himself more easily and > quickly." APPENDIX. NOTE i. PYTHAGORAS knew that if the strings of a musical instrument were of the same quality, of equal tension, but of unequal length, their lengths must be in the proportion of i : 2, of 2 : 3, or 3 : 4, in order to produce the perfect consonances of octave, treble, or quarte. In modern times, the relations 4 : 5 and 5 : 6 have been added, but without the ability of stating the reason why just these proportions bring forth these consonances. Musicians as well as philosophers and physicists have mostly rested content with the answer, that the human soul could, in some way unknown to us, find out the numerical relations of sound-vibrations, and that it felt an especial pleasure in viewing simple and easily scanned relations. The excellent work of Helmholtz brought the explanation : The physiologic-physical investigation shows that two sounds can only be felt simultane- ously in .the ear without disturbing each other in their outflow if they stand in certain positive interval-relations one to the other, the well-known intervals of the musical consonances. Helmholtz further showed that the upper tones appear far more frequently, and are of greater importance than was hitherto believed, and that they actually determine the shade of the sound of various instruments. NOTE 2. Periodical vibrations of the air, for instance, amounting from 1 6 to 36,000 in a second, affect us as sound, and by aid of our 112 APPENDIX. external organs of hearing and our nerves we perceive a musical sound if the vibrations are regular ; a noise, if irregular ; and, according as the vibrations are slow or more rapid, we perceive deep or high tones. Vibrations of the air, averaging 450-785 billions a second, which strike our organ of vision, are perceived as light or color : red, 450; yellow, 526; green, 589; blue, 640; indigo, 722; violet, according to the number of vibrations. Between the impressions caused by sound and by light are those produced by the changes of temperature. They begin far above the upper limit of the former, and extend beyond the lower limit of the latter. NOTE 3. Plateau counts the average length of sight-sensations as 32- 35 seconds, and claims that it increases in direct proportion with the intensity of the impression, for which reason the retinal- after-images of brightly illuminated objects are of comparatively long duration. This continuance of the sensation causes two impressions, which follow each other very rapidly, to intermingle with each other, and to be perceived as a single, longer sensa- tion, thus a glowing coal, swinging on a cord in a circle will appear as a fiery ring. A revolving disc on which the colors of the spectrum are painted will appear white because all colors intermingle, and the resulting impression is the simple white. Lazarus says : " For several minutes after the first impression has passed, a copy of the same color will remain ; when the sensation, however, lasts longer, so that the nerves grow tired, a complementary retinal-after-image will follow the one of like color (complementary colors are those which, when mixed in due proportion, produce white) ; as, red and greenish-blue, orange and blue, yellow and indigo, greenish-yellow and violet. With red impressions, the secondary picture is blue-green ; for violet, greenish-yellow ; for green, purple ; for white light, it is APPENDIX. 113 black, while on the other hand, a black object on light ground produces a white picture. The complementary retinal-after- image is either positive, when it is seen in comparatively equal or even greater brightness than the original impression, or nega- tive, when it is seen with less brightness ; the latter is the more general." NOTE 4. The example of a swinging stick is often used in explaining this. If in a dark room we could swing a stick to and fro at any rate we pleased, we should find that at first, with slow motion, we noticed no effect, then perhaps a draft; if the motion were quickened to about 20 vibrations a second, we should hear a deep tone, which, up to 36,000 vibrations, would become higher and higher, going through the entire scale. Then, for a time we would receive no impressions ; later still, warmth ; when the celerity reached 450 billion vibrations in a second, light, and one after another the different spectral colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The rays beyond violet, which were first discovered by their chemical action, are not visible generally, or at least affect our eye much less than the others ; they can, however, be rendered visible in an artificial way by the exclusion of all other light. Hclmholtz. The rays at the other end of the spectrum, usually invisible, may be perceived by the exclusion of the brighter, generally visible light. At the red end, in fact, the sun-spectrum reaches farther than can be discerned by the eye. Up to the present time it has only been possible to make these over-red rays perceivable by their heat-effect ; and they have therefore been termed dark-heat rays. Electricity and magnetism, finally, are, according to the view of highly celebrated naturalists of the present day, also vibratory motions of great velocity. (Electricity, longitudinal ; mag- netism, revolving; while light is a transverse mode of motion.) 114 APPENDIX. The difference between the transverse motion of light and the longitudinal vibrations of electricity would also explain the fact why transparent objects, which allow rays of light to pass through, do not transmit electricity ; and inversely, why the best conductors of electricity are opaque. We possess no separate sense by which we can feel the electric and magnetic phenom- ena separately. Electricity is perceived by man as light or heat ; as soon as led through bodies, it changes into the motions of light or heat. NOTE 5. With the lowest Protozoics, light very likely acts only as heat. On the other hand, we must be in doubt whether some forma- tions connected with the organs of touch in animals are to be reckoned with the usual organs of touch, or whether they trans- mit special sense-impressions which the specific conditions of the life of the animal possessing them call forth. In this suppo- sition, goblet-shaped formations found in the skin of fishes have indeed been counted a sixth sense ; invariably found on animals living in the water, they may transmit impressions which change with the flow of water or its chemical condition. Wundt. The impressions of higher organisms are caused by a differ- entiation of originally similar sensory sensations. The functions of the sense of feeling, the touch, temperature, and general sensations, appear here as the common source of development. The general organ of touch is perfected by the development of special touch apparatus ; from it arise specific sensory instru- ments, perhaps in connection with certain cilicious cells which appear among some lower animals as a special outfit of certain parts of the skin. For the continuation of the smell and taste cells are ciliates which, by virtue of position and condition, are eminently susceptible to certain modes of impression. Other cells of the skin are, by deposits of pigment and cuticular for- APPENDIX. 115 mations, pre-eminently open to the photo-chemical effect of light, and the reception of light-impressions. Wundt. NOTE 6. As electricity was present in nature from the beginning, but only came to be recognized in its entire breadth by man since the end of the last century, it might prove the same with as yet undiscovered powers of nature. If now, however, those who practise spiritualism and hypno- tism or animal magnetism raised the opinion that here was such a new, natural power which was somewhat related to magnetism, investigation has, concerning the former, made it very probable ; and concerning the latter, positively certain that the legerde- main tricks of spiritualism, as well as the seemingly miraculous facts of hypnotism, can be explained by the already discovered natural laws, and that those travelling artists, who practise these so-called sciences, have not discovered or made known a new natural power. When Prof. Ulrici, in Halle, in 1879, published his essay, " So-called Spiritualism a Scientific Question," in which he, basing the phenomena of spiritualism, not upon a new power of nature,* but upon spirits and the souls of the departed, drew great arguments from it for the belief in the immortality of the soul, W. Wundt published " Spiritualism a So-called Scientific Question," in which he shows with masterly skill that Ulrici is indeed right when he, like all who have studied this subject, claims that the spirit-apparitions do not point to a new power in nature, but without doubt to voluntary actions of intelligent beings ; but that the claim of an interference on the part of departed spirits annuls the laws of nature, and injures the prevailing causality by the introduction of an occasional and lawlessly acting supernatural cause ; while on the other hand it leads to unworthy and actually materialistic conceptions with regard to these spirits. I l6 APPENDIX. Animal magnetism appeared when, at the end of the last century, the discovery of magnetism set all minds in motion. Mesmer performed his magical animal-magnetic cures under many intentional and unintentional illusions ; and the literature about somnambulism and animal magnetism became very volu- minous, while many experiments were made concerning it by scientific men. These proved that this was not at all a new natural power, which certain persons controlled, but that every man could by practise gain the power of producing the hypnotic condition by even and uniform impressions on the senses (which also call forth the usual condition of sleep) ; that, furthermore, this hypnotic condition is, so to speak, an artificial somnambulism, and consists of a partial interception of con- sciousness, and still more of the will. NOTE 7. If, in the explosive dissolution, we say there is a disposition towards dissolution in the atomic union, we do not mean thereby to explain the phenomenon, but only to intimate in a short way the connection between the grouping of the atoms in the union and the explosive dissolution caused by slight external causes. NOTE 8. We know from later investigations in Physics, that ether- vibrations in the form of light-waves reverberate for a longer or shorter time in phosphorescent bodies, and can outlast the creating agency. Still more positive were the results obtained by Niepce de Saint Victor in his investigations concerning the dynamic properties of light ; he could show that light-vibrations may be collected, so to say, on a piece of paper, and retained as silent vibrations for more or less time, to break forth again under the influence of an awakening agency. Copper plates were first exposed to the sun, then kept in the dark, and APPENDIX. 117 several months after their insulation it was still possible by special functionary agents to call forth traces of the continued photographic influence of the sun on the surface of the copper plates. NOTE 9. Agglutination is especially perceptible in the study of lan- guage ; in the word-combinations, rail-road, servant-man, lead- pencil, we find the process exemplified. In earlier stages of development, language showed even more such agglutinations. Science even calls an entire class of languages of the present time agglutinative languages ; these include most of the Asiatic and Polynesian dialects. Some of these dialects, however, no longer show the pure agglutination. Our present language offers some examples of the blending process in the formation of words. In the development of language, most of the agglutinative combinations gradually change to blended unions, as the ele- ments are more closely knit together, and thereby lose their independence. NOTE 10. In the development of language it is best shown in the Romance languages in contrast to the blending and condensa- tion of the Latin : Latin amavi, French /' at aime. BERWICK A 8MITH, PRINTERS, BOSTON. Whv should Tparhf>rs* eadtbeLiteratur& yy rjy $uuui>a cucrjcrs O f tbeir p ro f ession ? ;Po/-/T//oo " man can stand high In any profession who Is not familiar Because wlth lta nlst0 ry and literature. 2RorniiGl* '* safes time which might be wasted In trying experiments that uebuudc naue already oeen tried and found useless. Compayr6'8 History Of Pedagogy. " The best and most comprehensive history of Education in English." Dr. G. S. HALL. ..... J'-75 Compayr6's Lectures on Teaching. " The best book in existence on the theory and practice of Education." Supt. MACALLISTBR, Philadelphia. . 1.75 Gill's System Of Education. "It treats ably of the Lancaster and Bell movement in Education a very important phase." Dr. W. T. HARRIS. . 1.15 Radestock's Habit in Education. " It will prove a rare ' find ' to teach- ers who are seeking to ground themselves in the philosophy of their art." E. H. RUSSELL, Worcester Normal. . ........ 0.75 Rousseau's Emile. " Perhaps the most influential book ever written on the subject of Education." R. H. QUICK ......... 0.90 Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. " if we except ' Emile ' only, no more important educational book has appeared, for a century and a half, than ' Leonard and Gertrude.' " The Nation, ....... 0.90 Richter's Levana ; or the Doctrine of Education. " A spirited and scholarly book." Prof. W. H. PAYNE ........ 1.40 Rosmini'8 Method in Education. " The most important pedagogical work ever written." THOMAS DAVIDSON ........ 1.50 Malleson's Early Training of Children. " The best book for mothers I ever read." ELIZABETH P. PEABODY. ....... 0.75 Hall's Bibliography of Pedagogical Literature. Covers every department of Education ............ I.JB Peabody's Home, Kindergarten and Primary School Educa- tion. "The best book outside of the Bible I ever read." A LEADING TEACHER ............... i.oo Newsholme'S School Hygiene. Already in use in the leading training colleges in England. ............ 0.75 DeGarmo's Essentials of Method. " It has as much sound thought to the square inch as anything I know of in pedagogics." Supt. BALLIBT, Springfield, Mass. ............ 0.65 Hall's Methods Of Teaching History. " Its excellence and helpful- ness ought to secure it many readers." Tkt Nation ...... 1.50 Seldel'S Industrial Education. " It answers triumphantly all objections to the introduction of manual training to the public schools." CHARLES H. HAM, Chicago .............. 0.90 Badlam's Suggestive Lessons on Language and Beading. "The book is all that it claims to be and more. It abounds in material that will be of service to the progressive teacher." Supt. DUTTON, New Haven. 1.50 Redway's Teachers' Manual of Geography. " Its hints to teacher* are invaluable, while its chapters on ' Modern Facts and Ancient Fancies ' wifl be a revelation to many." ALEX. E. FRYB, Author of " Tlu Child at Naturi." .............. 0.^5 Nichols' Topics in Geography. " Contains excellent hints and sug- gestions of incalculable aid to school teachers." Oakland (Col.) Tribwu. . 0.65 D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. flfeonograpbe on bucatibn. MANY contributions to the theory or the practice of teaching are yearly lost to the profession, because they are embodied in articles which are too long, or too profound, or too limited as to number of inter- ested readers, for popular magazine articles, and yet not sufficient in vol- ume for books. We propose to publish from time to time, under the above title, just such essays, prepared by specialists, choice of matter, practical in treatment, and of unquestionable value to teachers. Our plan is to furnish the monographs in paper covers, and at low prices. We shall continue the series as long as teachers buy freely enough to allow the publishers to recover merely the money invested. Of these series the following are now ready : Modern Petrography. By GEORGE HUNTINGTON WILLIAMS, of the Johns Hopkins University. The Study of Latin in the Preparatory Course. By EDWARD P. MORRIS, M.A., Professor of Latin, Williams College. Mathematical Teaching and its Modern Methods. By TRUMAN HENRY SAFFORD, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy in Williams College. How to Teach Reading and What to Read in the Schools. By G. STANLEY HALL, President of Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Science Teaching in the Schools. By WILLIAM NORTH RICE, Professor of Geology in Wesleyan University, Conn. English in the Preparatory Schools. By ERNEST W. HUFFCUT, Instructor in Rhetoric in Cornell University. English in the Schools. By F. C. WOODWARD, Professor of English in the University of South Carolina. The Study of Rhetoric in the College Course. By J. F. GENUNG, Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College. PRICE, 25 CENTS EACH. D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. SUBJECT TC EDUCATION RECEIVED JUL 2 5 1967 D./ LIBRARY. FINE IF NOT RE o _/ ^ URNITD T LIBR Form L9-116m-8,'62(D1237s8)444 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY TAGIL T A 001 132 141 1 UCLA-ED/PSYCH Library BF335R11 L 005 629 047 1 Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles