The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-09-12

Gin school" since he was eighteen months
old; and for the most Of that time he
was scholar without opinions and with
out doubts; he controverted nothing,
save only when his physical desires were
crossed, and was more alert, observing
curious and retentive than he will be
again. Nothing has become common
place to him. He has acquired his let
ters-can read little; but has any
grown person ever had conversation
with him? He has been lectured, leased,
chaffed and petted; has had some moral
and religious precepts impaired to him.
His antics OF body and mind have been
laughed at; but has any man or woman
ever had conversation with him? He
has had perhaps, governesses and nurses
! but never in most cases an adult COM
panion. He may be pert in some things
| and ways, but he has store of things
that he hides, and will only uncover to
chum. Every boy and girl needs an
adult chum as an educational force.
Consider the case Of boy. He has been
brought into vast workshop, where
the most subtle forces and the most in
tricate mechanisms are humming and
whirling; into a vast picture gallery
where thousands of canvases, great and
small, are hung; into great auditorium
where on many stages clowns and TRACE
dams are acting and reciting. He needs
help; for habit that will influence, yes
control his intellectual life is now being
acquired. Is he to have wandering or
fixed eye; habit of attention or of
mental dissipation? Perception is near
the base of all intellectual growth. That
men can see, and see not, was one OF the
Bible paradoxes that my infant mind
hearing heard not. But the explanatory
words perceive" and understand" make
the saying not only plain but profound.
Seeing is mental, not an optical fact.
The great men 10 every department of
labor are the men who seeing, see. and
hearing hear. A "scatterbrain" may run
on to bee tree, but he cannot be de-
pended upon to supply the table with
honey. We note many mental ''charac-
teristics' in men. We say this one has
a good memory. and this one great rea-
soning powers; but from mental stand
point there are in truth only two great
classes among men-the men who give
attention and men who do not
The first command on the drill ground
is Attentions" and it ought to be the
first in the nursery, the home and the
school. The best way to cultivate the
memory is to get focus and then to
give proper exposure. The most OF the
things we have forgotten are things we
never knew. AS soon as child is old
enough to notice anything he may be
taught to make his notice particular and
not casual.
1.-THE clay is moist and soft; now, now make
hate,
And form the vessel. for the wheel turns fast"
Why did the good God make things to
differ-the leaf and bark and seed. only
enough alike to indicate the family, and
yet no counterparts in any family-if
not for our notice? You can make no.
thing of boy to whom tree is tree,
until you have taught him that it is not
30. The boy who has learned to distin-
guish beech from box alder will make
other distinctions more easily. l am
persuaded that we make too little OF
childhood in our educational system.
The school-room gets him soon enough;
perhaps too soon. and with too hard a
grip; but the guide Of the two, three.
four and FIVE year old has been too
much off duty. Do not mistake me.
The pupils are not to be called in from
play; there is to be no hour; they are
not to be crammed, nor their feet set in
paths, nor to have any suspicion that
they are taking a lesson. The object is
not knowledge, but the training of a
faculty that is then very alert-the fac
ulty Of perception. DO not plan to bring
objects to their notice so much as to
lead them to notice more accurately
things that have already attracted their
notice. Do not try to be exhaustive, but
only to add something. Senator STAN
ford told me that in the training of his
young horses he always stopped the ex-
erciss inside the fatigue limit.
The faculty of description, of making
others see and enjoy what you have
seen and enjoyed, is the handmade of
perception, and the two should walk to-
gether. Don't do all the talking; let the
child have chance. Montague says:
otis the custom Of school masters to
be eternally laundering in their pupils
care, as though they were pouring into
funnel l would not have
him alone to invent and speak. but that
he should also hear his pupils in turn"
The tank may be full, but if there is no
tap how shall we draw from it? Com
position will be made easy, and the &C.
curacy of the child's observation will be
tested by drawing him on to describe
what he has seen. To make giving out
aosv ia ouita as much in the Way of edu-