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

the vices of the savage, but he has many of
| the mental characteristics. Embryology does
| not teach that in prenatal life the child
| passes into the form of every animal in a
| menagery but that its life passes through the
stages that mark the great subdivisions Of
: all HE. NOT DO the. comparisons of the child
| with the primitive man indicate that he must
| pass through all the activities of savage races,
| but that the development Of his faculties,
| the tendencies of his desires, the state Of his
Ignorance, all illustrate the history Of the de-
| velopment of the race. Primitive man may
| be understood by study of the child, and
conversely, the child may by illustrated by
| primitive man.
The body Of the child is recast in its
| growth, and no adult is simply larger child.
| He is a child modified by diet. by social con-
troll and self-control, by mental and physical
activity. AS the child is born with a weak
body, so he comes into the world with unde-
veloped senses. He eats automatically. and he
learns to taste first of all. He is both blind
and deaf. In his later development, it is a
long time before he can discriminate all the
colors.
TRUE OF PRIMITIVE MAN.
1t is equally true Of primitive man His de-
! fcency in color has led some to doubt
whether the early Aryans knew color at ALL
Savages and children delight in loud colors
because they do not appreciate or recognize
the delicate ones. If you think child is ap-
preciattve Of sound, give a small boy a drum
He acts just like a savage. Mentally the child
savage Is The beginnings of history and in
stitutiCns can only be understood when we
remember that races in their early develop
ment do not have clearly marked activity
or Imagination, reason and memory. They
mix the three. So legends, myths, and heroics
are earnest efforts Of the undeveloped to make
objective the truth, and are not clumsy lies
at ALL
The child must be fed through his imagi-
nation. or he Will not grow. It is his natural
food. No Gradgrind doctrine of facts will do
digest h6
tenpenny nails. If he is not furnished proper
fiction, and has vigor, ne will get what he
can find for himself-and alas, often to his
manifold harm. Some children with more
imagination than others do not lie, but they
simply cannot tell when they remember. Saw
ages cannot concentrate their attention Now
prolonged concentration of thought IS the re-
suit Of culture. The child cannot concentrate
his attention. This is vital fact in deal
ing with him. He must be developed and
helped-not brutality deformed in body and
paisied in mind by iron discipline. The de-
velopment OF language in races and the
growth OF the vocabulary with the child are
parallel. This fact has led to a revolution
in practical linguistics. The savage cannot
comprehend abstract terms. He has no word
for color-only words for yellow or red;
word for tree, but names for the oak or pine.
A name for his locality, but name for his
island. He has no words for justice patriot
ism. or love. The child does not grasp the
abstract. He must be taught by illustrations
by objects. by word pictures He who Sails
to find this out cannot teach.
UNDEVELOPED IN MORALS.
In morals, the child is undeveloped, and
has many points of contact with primitive
man. He has no more knowledge of the
rights of property than the savage. He must
be taught mine and thine. He is often cruel
because he is self-centered. He lacks rever-
ence. Unhappy baby he who is crowned king
in any home Nor are all children alike any
more than all SavageS are alike. 1t is con-
slant marvel that there are so many dreadful
ptyy bor OP
men. But the power of self-control is not
physically possible until the brain is devel-
oped in maturity. and that is the reason that
so many who are young are ruined by habits
that the adult manages who has come to
the physical basis Of prudence. A better I'M
Outstanding of these facts will make wiser
fathers and mothers as well as better schools
Mothers clubs, which give themselves to a
real investigation of child nature, are among
the most practical of home missionary insti-
tutions
I have dwelt at such length on the evolu-
ton of the child that I have scant time
to treat of the Importance of the urecon-
ception of evolution to any adequate use of
human knowledge.
By nature. life, government industry, art
all the fields of study-have an evolutionary
history. They pass from the simple to the
complex, from the indefinite to the definite
How can any one be teacher who does not
trace the methods Of development, and who
does not see unity in nature and in his
tory? What is meant is not an illuSory unity
by deus ex machina working from the out
side but an inner organic unity by which all
the particulars of observation are correlated
in perfect whole.
HISTORY AND LITERATURE.
1 must parttcularize in two fields-historv
and literature No one can teach history In
any modern sense who does not know that
every civilization begins with savagery, that
1t commences with crude stone implements
and works up to conquest of the world He
must know that institutions a revelation
of the development of the people who uss
them. He will understand that the ballot
cannot be put in the hands of a savage
Low grades of life must deal with few people
and simple situations. The complex and
highly organized societies are founded bv
complex and highly organized men. The evo-
luton of governments, arts, industries is only
possible through the evolution of races Peo
Piles who have like institutions are similar
in condition, development and culture
Literature can no longer be taught nv the
mere study Of the text and the consideration
Of its author. Literature flows with the
stream of human life. 1t reflects its time II
is highly complex thing. The author may
indeed be great, but to compose a great work
he must live in a great age and belong TO a
great peoole. The social and political changes
IN a nation recreate its literary ideals he
cause they result from the changed Iiving
ideals of the time. How then can he who
is ignorant of the great law Of evolution be
a teacher of the literatures which are mile
stones in that continual procession of ma
tTcns and peoples from the simple to the
complex, from the indefinite to dstinctness
Of form and relation?