The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-24


the Most Royal Law OF Human
Thought - Mental Characteris-
tics Of the Child.
Rev. Samuel G. Smith delivered an
interesting sermon last evening in the
Peoples church upon Evolution and
Education" In the audience were sew
eral members Of the board of education
and many Of those most prominently
Identified with the public schools Of ST.
Paul. DR.. Smith discussed child study
as a primary basis in the education
and evolution Of the nation He said:
We are all deeply interested in the subject
of education, for its methods and it's facili-
ties powerfully affect our social well being
and our religious life. 1t is for this reason
that | have chosen to speak tonight on the
theme of Evolution and Education
The theory Of evolution has been unfortu-
nate in having been so much talked about
and so little studied or understood. . Peopla
who would know that they ought not to dis
cuss me integral calculus without special
preparation glibly debate evolution on the
basis OF a few odd rags OF popular informal
ton.
Many, people who talk down evolution sup
pose they sum up its teaching by saw
ing. q can never believe that man de-
scended from monkey" But no one
accepts or teaches such a descent in ar
guing for the continuity and differentiation
OF Ilfe The law Of evolution is as univer-
sal in its application as the law of grayita-
ton. 1t holds that in every realm the simple
tends to become complex, and that the COM
ple1 Is more stable than the simple. Motion
and substance have a. history in which the
simple and the indefinite take on variety Of
organization and defintteness OF adaptation.
Spencer, in his First Principles" shows
the application OF this law to world-buiIdinr
society of
small and primitive tribes, to- governments
building out Of crude and incidental despot-
ism. me vast applications of the law from
biology to sociology have made it reconstruc-
tive or every department of human know
edge. Darwinism teaches the relationship Of
all forms of life, and in its particular expla-
nations may be true or false but evolution
like grayftation the Copernican doctrine Of
astronomy, is universal in it's scope and
ranks with the greatest discoveries of the
human intellect.
furnished or personal investigation of the
process shall be undertaken 1t becomes nee
essary to be very simple and elementary with
such a person. 1t involves preliminary in
struction as to the nature of knowledge and
the laws of mind. AS we'll might one refuse
to accept the nebular hypothesis of world
making unless he could be permitted to stand
by and watch one through all the process.
or course by that time he would be very
old man. Such person would not accent
the motion and sphericity of the earth un-
side the planet and see 1t go round
KNOWLEDGE IS INFERENTIA1,.
The truth is that nearly all human knowl-
edge Is inferential and proceeds by Undue
ton. The guess passes into the hypothesis:
that, after testing, becomes a theory and
when an explanation Is universally aDnlica-
Die to the known facts 1t becomes the con-
vlction OF the Investigator. And after his
methods have been tested by a suffcient Nun
Der OF capable critics it becomes the accented
doctrine of the intelligent world. The doc
Urine of evolution has passed through all
these ordeals, and is now firmly seated on its
throne as the most royal law of human
thought. | intend to present two applics-
lions Of the doctrine to the subject of edu
cation. The first relates to the child-the sub
1ect to be educated-and the second to its I'M
portance to knowledge, the material bv
which the process of education is conducted
the process of education seeks to lead the
child from the simplicity of natural isnorsnca
to that intelligence witch will comprehenS
complex facts, principles and situations and
be able TO act suitably with reference TO
them All the body of doctrine summed UP
In the words child study" is based upon
this proposition. The old psychology is all
so simple-a human being is made up of in
tellect sensibilities and willard it is all so
useless and so untrue. for it will neyAp
work when there Is business to be done In
the place of this primitive simplicity we
now know that there is race psychology. So
cial psychology, as we'll as psychology differ
entlated for the man, the woman and tha
child But the mind manfests itself differ
emily under different circumstances. The hu
man faculties coordinate In a different way
in the city and in the country how much
more among the civilized and the uncivlized.
CHILDS MENTAL FOOD.
When 1t is argued that the child must be
studied from another point of view than the
developed adult, and so will require different
proportions of mental food, it is no more than
saying that the child has a different digestive
apparatus from an adult, and requires differ
ent food for the body When 1t is stated that
the child has many points Of contact with
primitive man, 1t does not mean that the
child is savage. but that In its immaturity
we can learn much from the study Of child
races. The child has neither the virtues nor