133. The qualities needed by the teacher are: Aptness to teach; interest in the subject; abundant knowledge; ability to hold attention; quick perception of eye and ear; the ability to ask clear, pointed, and pertinent questions.

134. Some of the qualities of a good recitation are: Lively attention, animation, anticipation; a thorough mastery of the assigned lesson; an intelligent reproduction of the thought; prompt and definite responses; good order.

135. Some cautions to be observed: Lessons may be too long or too short; the teacher may talk too much or may give too much help; illustration may be carried to an extreme; formal reviews may be too frequent; inattention and disorder may destroy the value of the exercise.

136. Some points in the mechanism of the recitation that deserve notice: The use of signals; calling and dismissing classes; position of pupils and teacher; order of recitation; attention; assignment of lessons.

CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE OLD EDUCATION AND THE NEW.

137. The preponderance given, first to Art, and then to Nature, in the work of Education, has given rise to two schools that may be distinguished as the Old and the New.

The old education is the system that culminated, and the new the system that originated, at about the period of the Reformation. In a more restricted sense, the new education sometimes means the system that is opposed to the

classical curriculum; and in a still narrower sense, is sometimes used to designate the kindergarten system of primary instruction. I here use the term in its general sense.

Both schools err by exaggeration; each is right in what it claims, and wrong in what it denies. Their points of contrast may be exhibited as follows:

138. The old assumes that man is to be brought to his most perfect state by artificial means.

The new assumes that man has within himself all the resources needed to attain his most perfect state.*

The old doctrine is right in assuming that education is a work of art, requiring, for its greatest perfection, all the resources of human ingenuity and skill; but the new doctrine is also right in assuming that education is a natural process. The reconciliation lies in the fact that education is a natural process directed by human art. Mere nature is as powerless to produce a man fit for the complicated duties of modern life, as to produce a rareripe peach or a chronometer.

139. The old regards education as a process of manufacture.

The new regards education as a process of natural growth.

It is true that human beings are born with a predetermination to grow, and that they will in time pass through successive stages of development, because they cannot resist this dominant law of their nature; but it is also true that this growth may be controlled, modified, helped or hindered, by human agency.

140. The old makes much of authority, tradition, precedent.

13.

The new confides in liberty, natural law, development.

*"Everything is good, as it comes from the hands of the Author of nature : everything degenerates in the hands of man. He forces one country to nourish the productions of another, one tree to bear the fruits of another; he mingles and confounds the climates, the elements, and the seasons; he mutilates his dog, his horse, and his slave; he overturns and disfigures everything; he loves deformity, monsters; he will have nothing as nature made it, not even man; man must be trained as a horse in a riding school; he must be bent to his fancy, like a tree in his garden."-Emile.

Human progress is possible only on the condition that each generation profits by the experiences of the generation that has preceded; but a second condition is alike indispensable, the new generation must, by its own resources, make additions to the capital it has received by inheritance.

141. The old magnifies the office of the teacher and the text-book.

The new regards the teacher as only negatively useful, and the text-book as an obstacle.

Books are indispensable in the work of education, because they embody the accumulated wisdom of the past; and teachers are even more indispensable, because a complicated art, like that of education, should be assigned only to skillful hands. But when books and teachers become more than helps, they are hindrances; they are valuable only as they minister to self-help.

142. The old is devoted to the communication of accumulated knowledge.

The new sets pupils to the task of rediscovery.

Preceding generations have left behind vast treasures of accumulated knowledge that must be accepted as an inheritance, and not acquired by the endless toil of rediscovery; but there is also new knowledge to be acquired by original discovery, additions must be made to the capital that has been received as a legacy.

143. The old exalts the office of memory, but neglects the culture of the observing faculties.

The new degrades the office of memory, but makes the culture of the observing faculties the basis of education.

It is an obvious error to make memory a mere store-house, and especially, a store-house of unused material; but it is very certain that education can not be provident, unless there is this reservoir of power.

The power of accurate observation is an essential factor in education, and under the form of reflection, is one of the very highest functions of the mind; but the education that consists largely in mere observation is essentially superficial.

A weakness in modern education is the neglect of the memory. The immediate interests of the eye and the ear are abundantly cared for, but there is not a sufficient provision, within the depths of the mind, for the time to come.

144. The old makes information the chief element in education.

The new makes formation, or discipline, the chief element in education.

The ideal education requires the fullest development of the thinking instrument and the most abundant supply of the choicest material for thought.

145. The rigors of the old education often made school life gloomy; that a study was repulsive, was an argument in its favor.*

In the new education, the test of fitness in the subjects and in methods of instruction, is the degree of pleasure that pupils manifest.

The old time severity, and the new time laxity, are both extremes that are to be avoided. A study is not good because it is repulsive; but it may be both repulsive and good.

The new doctrine of pleasure-giving confounds work with play, and a surplus of energy with exhaustion of energy. Foot-ball may require more physical exertion than woodsawing; but there is no device by which the second can be made as agreeable as the first.t

*See note 7, p. 20.

14. "We must recollect that all energy, all occupation, is either play or labor. In the former, the energy appears as free, or spontaneous; in the latter as either compulsorily put forth, or its execution so impeded by difficulties that it is only continued by a forced and painful effort, in order to accomplish certain ulterior ends."-Hamilton, Metaphysics, p. 603-4.

CRITICISM OF PRINCIPLES.

146.

"The education of the child must accord, both in mode and arrangement, with the education of mankind as considered historically; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race.”—(Spencer.)

This is the most concise statement that has yet been given to the new theory of education; and the so-called "Pestalozzian Principles " are but corollaries to this main proposition.

The characteristics of this "genesis of knowledge in the race," as stated by Spencer, are as follows: progress from the concrete to the abstract; it is a process of self-instruction; it is pleasurable; it is one phase of the "method of civilization." (Education, pp. 122-127.)

Spencer's interpretation of the "method of civilization," ignores the influence of accumulation, and of acquisition through inheritance. This method is not self-help alone, but self-help supplemented by accumulated capital.

Because, historically, "every science is evolved out of its corresponding art," it does not follow that this order of instruction should be followed in schools.

Shall the pupil accept the generalization that "all the salts of lead are poisonous," on the authority of the text-book; or shall he reach it through experiences with these several poisons?

We are told that, "in the order of time," "with the mind as with the body, the ornamental precedes the useful.". (Education, chap. I.) Yet so far is Mr. Spencer from commending this order of procedure, that he condemns the current mode of education because it is based on this historical order.

Mr. Spencer's own method of instruction is to begin with abstract statements; yet this method is in complete disaccord with "the genesis of knowledge in the race."