The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-08-30
Dewey LECTURES
End of the First Series
Last Night.
Next Course viii be on The Development of
Thought in the Nineteenth
Century"

| Interested auulence at the ftlSn ScnOOl
last evening. This, however. does not
end the Doctors mission in Honolulu,
as on Friday evening next he will be-
i gin a new series of lectures, the title
in the Nineteenth Century, The OBJ
ject of this course is to present the in
fiuences which literature and advanced
thought have had in the development
| of the nation.
In last evenings lecture Professor
Dewey laid considerable stress upon
the formation of habits in a child, and
| the idea that habits are not formed by
a constant repetition of doing the same
thing over and over again, but by an
original impulse which brought posi-
tive success at once.
Now with the changing which is
occurring in a child; we cease to con-
slider the child as preparatory to some
thing else, or, in other words, pre-
paratory to the adult life One of the
most popular books ever written for
children was entitled Little Men and
Little Women, and yet they are not
small, reduced copies, smaller sizes of
adult life; it is not true that physical
ly children are little men and little
women; they are different in struct-
| ure; it would be truer to conceive
| them as a different species altogether.
! When we follow out the idea of Mrs.
| MinSell, when she quotes that our an
cestOrS looked upon children as prep
aration merely for adult life, and of
| childhood having it's own worth and
value, having it's forms for itself, one
| thing that becomes of great Importance
| to us is to discover when the various
impulses and instincts and interests in
point of view in the child begin to
show themselves, and then to ripen
| and then to pass away. Professor
| James has said that the instincts are
| implanted for the sake of giving rise
| to habits; that is, there is period in
which the instinct shows itself and
may be transformed and become
permanent habit; but if the instinct is
/ not utilized at the proper moment, it is
| destined to pass away. 1t is not pos
| sible ever to fully make up for any
| loss of development in a child; there
| is a moment when the iron is hit, and
| if we do not strike at that particular
moment, we do not get the desired re-
suit in the child. There are certain
powers in a child, but if they are at
tempted to be developed simultaneous
ly the child would be driven like four
horses abreast Now, the present idea
is, as [ have just been saying, that the
instincts rise and ripen and pass away.
One of the main purposes of our study
of childhood is to be able to detect the
signs of the appearance Of any partlc-
ular instinct or impulse in order that
we may make permanent, or cOntinu-
ously operative, whatever there is of
good in it, and weed out whatever
does not tend in the right direction.
THAT periodic development of char
acteristic tastes is one of the chief
things which we have to bear in mind.
l tried to bring out in some of the pre-
ceding thoughts what some of these
characteristic ideas were. The prin-
ciple still holds true, and there would
be more reason for us to deeply con-
slider the development of the child in
order to find out the proper time to
facilitate the development of the in
stincts and impulses.
1T does not follow that we should
always encourage them, but it remains
for us to find some direction in which
they can become developed, if for the
good. The one great point is the gen
eral machinery of development. Some
years ago | happened to sit in a rail-
road car with labOring man, evil
IDENTIFY a grist-miller, and formed a
conversation with him. He told me
more or less of his work, and about
his repairing grist-millS. He, in turn,
asked me what was my calling;
tried to tell him, but, of course, he did
not understand what psychologist
was, but 1 told him it dealt with the
10 inI ar
is the good of that?' l was rather at
a loss to reply to him, but it happened
that he had told me of his family af-
fairs more or less and of some trouble
with his wife and as | reflected upon
the matter | told him that | was deal
ing in one kind of machinery-my ma
chinery was the mind, and. that if we
could not get it in good working order
and have the friction removed-that
society was machinery, and if we did
not understand the cogs and wheels,
we could not keep it all going right;
and | drew a comparison between my
own machinery and the machinery
which he ordinarily handled, and in
the end l believe that l justified my
vocation and calling in his eyes.
1T suggests a certain point of view.
In one way the mind is machine, and
may be considered as a grist-mill, or
any loom, or self-binding reaper. 1t
has a certain structure of its own
which controls its work, and it is lit
orally true, 1 think, that a smooth
working thereof is dependent upon our
mastery of this machinery. Of course, !
most of our mastery comes to us in
everyday life, but at all events our
theoretical life can help it out. The
same as a man who operates loom; /
he may be proficient in all its practi- /
cal workings, and yet when it gets out
of order. or some delicate fixture is
misplaced, one who has a theoretical
knowledge of its workings has to be
called in to fix it Alright. Now, fortu-
nately, the general working of this
machinery of the mind is so plain and