The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-06-04

tIohtnue0 from pag SIN
NEGATIVE thing, but it is positive
action. and often a higher type of
action tina is actual outer expression.
But should not cat give us
ideals as we'll as habits? It should
DC this, and it does do it. 'Educa-
ton. e~nlareine as it does our horizon
ana perspective, is a means Of multi
plying our ideals, of bringing new
ones into view" But it is not suf-
flclent merely TO possess an ideal.
Mere ideals are the cheapest things
IL life. Your college professor, with
a starched shirt and spectacleS, would.
II a stock Of ideals were all alone
by itself enough to render a life sig
~nltlcant. be the most absolutely and
deeply significant of men" The ideal,
70 be worth while. must. like all else.
determine actlOn Ideal aspirations
are not enough. when uncombined
with pluck and will. But neither are
pluck and will. dogged endurance and
lnsenslblllty to danger enough. when
taken all alone. There must be some
sort of fusion, some chemical com
bination among these principles, for
a life effectively and thoroughly sig
nifcant to result"
Native tendencies and acquired
tendencies, instinct and habit, must
be organized by education for right
action, for the formation Of character
Ideals we must have, but these, too,
must be organized as tendencies to
right and moral action before they
become significant. knowledge, Of
course. education must give; it can
not safely be nelected. it gets. indeed,
a new significance when it is seen to
; be but a step toward the inal goal
OF action. Everywhere it is Eek
PRESTON. action" Character
| "will'-the dynamic side of life
that is for James the heart and soul
Of education. 1t is not a new system
which he has given to pedagogy, but
q new emphasis
And this new emphasis came at a
very critical point in the history Of
educational thought, at a period when
education was slowly emerging from
its past condition as a collection of
opinions, bolstered up by individual
authority and more or less uncorre-
| lated experience. into its present state,
3 characterized by the attainment of a
scientific point of view and a rapidly
: accommodating body OF verilable fact.
Education. from the very completely
of it's material. has been the last Of
the great departments OF knowledge
8 to attain to a scientific point Of view.
+ Herbart was indeed the last of the
; great pre-scientific thinkers in edu-
cation. His psychology is still a
psychology Of speculation, and the
pedagogy based on it cannot transcend
, such limitations. That education has
in the last twenty years won to a
! point of view in which respect for
! fact has superseded respect for opin-
ion and theory is in no small meas
e ure due to the body Of fact attained
by the new psychology of which
e James was in this country the fore
e most exponent. Every year sees edu-
40 TO- ocn on foot " loo
: on dogma. less in the air. less given
h to empty phraseology to cover its ig-
IS nOrance. Though we have today
swung wide of James's conclusions in
e many respects, yet his work and the
work Of the men inspired by him has
: done a vast deal TO make possible
this new point of view. And here per
!, hans will some day be seen to be the
= greatest contribution Of all which
:, James made: in his passionate in
= sistence that we discard mere words
and get back to realities: hat We
take in our educational thinking q
q truly scientific point Of view.
! have no space to speak OF his one
6 great contribution to experimental
Education; his experimentally verified
8 thesis that training the emo II
is one field results in no apparent i'm.
provement in other fields, even those
i apparently closely allied; that I'VE
It have not a but memories.
r These conclusions were significant no
only in themselves, but in the ligh
e which they shed On the old theor
that il was possible to train tn
mind by the study of q few definit
subjects theory Q happily dis
carded in its older form.
, It is not fitting that one who wa
:. not himself a pupil OF Professo
q James should even attempt to est
mate what deeply significant servic
to education he rendered through hi
n lasting inspiration Of all those VIII
came under the vigor Of his teaching
and the charm of his personality