The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-05-26

In this constant drill the conscience cannot fail
to be refined and instructed; for to make a
scrupulously accurate statement of a fact OBJ
served, with all needed qualifications and limita-
items, is as good a training of the consciousness
as secular education can furnish.
The next mental function which education
should develop, if it is to increase reasoning
power and general intelligence, is the faculty
of drawing correct differences from recorded
observations, a faculty which is almost identical
will the faculty of grouping or co-ordinating
kindred facts, comparing one group with anoth-
er or with all the others, and then drawing an in
ference which is sure in proportion to the num-
Der of cases, instances, or experiences on which
1t is based. This power is developed by practice
in induction. It is often a long way from the
patent fact to the just inference. For cen
turtles the Phoeniciap and Roman navigators
had seen the hulls of vessels disappearing below
the blue horizon of the Mediterranean while
their sails were visible; but they never drew
the inference that the earth was round. On
any particular topic or subject it may take
generations or centuries to accumulate facts
enough to establish a just inference or generaIi-
zation-the earlier accumulation may be insult
fcient, the first grouping wrong, or the first
samplings deceptive-and so the first general
inference may be incorrect; but the method,
rightly understood and p~ractised, leads straight
to truth. 1t is the patient, candid, impartial,
universal method of modern science.
Fourthly, education should cultivate the
power of expressing ones thoughts clearly,
cCncisely, and cogently. This power is to be
procured only by much practice in the mother
tongue, and this practice should make part of
every child's education from beginning to end.
So far as a good style can be said to be formed
or created at all, it is ordinarily formed by
constant practice under judicious criticism. Ef
this practice and criticism are supplied, it is
unimportant whether the student write an his
torical narrative, or a translation from Keno
phon, or a laboratory notebook, or an account
of a case of hypnotism or typhoid fever, or a
law-brief, or a thesis on comparative religion;
the subject-matter is comparatively Indifferent,
SO far as the cultivation of accurate and forci-
bic speech or writing is concerned. In ~cultivat-
ing any field of knowledge this power of ex-
preston can be won if the right means be used,
and if these means be neglected it will not be
won in any field. For cultivating the habit of
reasoning justly, however, there is one kind of
practice in expressing ones thoughts which has
special Importance, namely, practice in argu-
mentative composition-in the logical and per-
suasive development of an argument, starting
from well-selected premises and brought to a
just conclusion.
These, then, are the four things in which the
Individual youth should be thoroughly trained,
if his judgment and reasoning power are to be
Systematically developed: observing accurately;
recording correctly; comparing, grouping, and
inferring justly, and expressing cogently the
results of these mental operations. These are
the things in which the population as a mass.
must be trained in youth, if its judgment and
reasoning power are to be systematically de-
DISQUALIFICATION Charles W. Eliot, of Har-
ward University, in American Contributions to