The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-12-21
EVOLUTION.

To THE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL.
/ There have been some arguments in
favor of the unity of history and against
breaking it into epochs. America has
known periods of discovery, exploration
and settlement. 1t has known periods
of religious awakening, of educational
awakening, and Of industrial awakening.
( 1t should also know period of social
| awakening, but when we hear men talk
of reading thousand pages day and
scarcely speaking to neighbor, the re-
verse seems to be approaching, and it is
even hinted that man might lose the
power of speech if some more convent
ent means of communication were in
vented
History being thus series of waves.
the historian who attempts to knead it
into solid mass without crack or cleay-
age, and Intervene with it the contlgu-
! Gus European history, performs tor US
the thankless task of the artist who
paints the ocean without waves. To
such historian the domain of our thir-
teen original States is not within their
boundaries, but outside And the navi-
cation acts are not American laws,
though we have some, but his naviga-
ton acts are English laws.
Words are liable to imply different
meaning IN different departments of
education. In literature truth means
/ that which IS true in all times and places,
while in psychology it means that which
! is considered true in some certain local
ity or at some specified time. These
+ differences of vocabulary would not
grow up if teachers were changed every
few years from one department to an
other. Other evils would also be avoid
ed by these changes.
! Did you ever see teacher printing
facts on the child s mind in the same
manner that photograph discs are made
at the factory? The schoolroom thus
becomes a factory and the teacher a
mere machine in that factory. 1t may
be argued against the change of de-
partments that good teacher of history
might not have the reasoning power es
! sential to mathematics. But every sub
i ject needs reasoning, and any attempt
| to educate the child as the druggist fills
! bottles is not education. The teacher
who hands out the same facts year after
year forgets how new truth enters the
mind.
! Educators have used myths, fables
and fiction as tools of their trade during
so many centuries that they fail to OBJ
serve that the truths brought to light in
this modern world are stranger, more
fascinating and more highly educative
| than any myths of the ancients. If
they observed the fact, they would
doubtless hesitate to make the change,
for the same reason that they refuse to
give US phonetic alphabet in place of
the stuff that has come down to US from
antiquity. This savors somewhat of
Chinese ancestor worship.
VIM. Long places on the title page of
his American Literature"
"As strong bird on pinons free,
Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleav-
ing
Such be the thoughtful think of thee, Amer
icap'
In harmony with the above sentiment
he alludes to the milk and-water vol
umes of Peter Farley and Jacob Abbott
and says: 'This unnatural, unwhole-
some stuff grows and multiplies like bac-
terra. Every generation sees a new at
tack of juveniles, milder or more malig-
nant than the others, but boys and girls,
II their taste be not poisoned, will in
stinctively choose the beautiful or heroic
books that inspire the race of men from
generation to generation"
AS literature for older people he says:
''The idealists of the nineteenth century
were radically opposed to the material
ism of the eighteenth, which followed
the theory of Locke that mind is essen
TALLY blank sheet on which knowledge
is inscribed only by experience. This
eighteenth century materialism is taught
today. These two fundamental concep-
tons that the individual soul is of su-
preme Importance and that nature is but
the symbol, the garment, the changing
expression of one. changless spiritual
fOrce-cOlOred with something of the
hues of heaven, the whole romantic
movement in American literature"