The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-24
TALK ON CHILD STUDY
REV. S. G.. SMITH DELIVERS !
SERMON ON EVOLUTION AND
EDUCATION
THEORY LITTLE UNDERSTOOD

The Doctrine Has Passed Through
All the Usual OrdeaIs and Is Now
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 its facii-
ties powerfully affect our social we'll 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 much talked about
and so little studied or understood. People
who would know that they ought not to dis
preparation glibly debate evolution on the
basis of a few odd rags of popular Informal
ton.
Many people who talk down evolution sim
pose they sum up its teaching by say
ing. i 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 life. The law OF evolution is as uniyer-
sal in its application as the law of gravita-
ton It holds that in every realm the simple
! tends to become complex. and that the COM
pick is more stable than the simple. Motion
and substance have history in which the
simple and the indefinite take on variety Of
organization and defniteness of adaptation.
Spencer, in his First Principles" shows
! the application of this law to worId-building
out of star dust, to society building out Of
small and primitive tribes, to government
building out of crude and incidental despot-
ism. The vast applications of the law from
biology to sociology have made it recons true
tive of every department of human knOWl-
edge. Darwinism teaches the relationship Of
all forms Of life, and in its particular eXpla-
nations may be true or false but evolution
like gravftation or the Copernican doctrine of
astronomy. is universal in it's scope and
ranks with the greatest discoveries Of the
human intellect.
When it is asked that direct proof shall be
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 snd watch through all the process
OF course by that time he would be a very
old man. Such a person would not accent
the motion and sphericity of the earth I'M
less he could be placed at some point out
side the planet and see it go round
KNOWLEDGE rs INFERENTIAL.
The truth is that nearly all human knowl-
edge IS inferential and proceeds by induc-
ton The guess passes into the hypothesis:
that, AFTER testing, becomes a theory and
when an explanation is universally appIica-
Bile to the known facts it becomes the con-
viction of the investigator. And after his
methods have been tested by a sufficient num-
Der of capable critics 1t becomes the accepted
doctrine Of the intelligent world. The doc
trlne 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 applica-
lions OF the doctrine to the subject Of edu-
cation. The first relates to the child-the sub
Ject to be educated-and the second to its i'm
portance to knowledge. the material by
which the process Of education is conducted
The process of education seeks to lead the
child from the simplicity of natural ignoranoe
to that intelligence which will comprehend
complex facts, principles and situations and
be able to act suitably with reference to
them. All the body of doctrine summed I'm
in the words "child study is based unon
this proposition The old psychology Is all
so simple-a human being is made up of In
tellect. sensibilities and willard it Is all 81
useless and 30 untrue for it will nevar
work when there is business to be done. In
the place of this primitive simplicity we
now know that there Is race psychology. So
clai psychology, as well as psychology differ
entiated for the man. the woman and the
child. But the mind manifests itself differ
emily under different circumstances The hui
man faculties coordinate in a different wav
in the city and in the country, how much
more among the civilized and the uncvilized
CHILD'S MENTAL FOOD.
When 1t is argued that the child must be
studied from another point of view than the
developed adult. and will require different
proportions Of mental food 1t is no more than
saying that the child has different digestive
apparatus from 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 a savage, but that in it's iramaturitv
we can learn much from the study of child
races. The child has neither the virtues nor