guiding principle in education no competent educationist could be
found to deny. It teaches us to deal with the young as in a very true
sense the heirs of all the ages, to make due allowance in childhood
for instincts and habits which partake of the earlier stages of human
development, and to look forward with confidence to later and higher
manifestations. We have less faith than our ancestors had in the
rod, and more in the gradual unfolding of the powers and capacities
of the mind, and therewith the enlargement and improvement of the
moral nature. We do not believe as our forefathers did in breaking
children's wills; nor do we view their peccadilloes in the lurid
light of a gloomy theological creed. We recognize that veracity, in
the sense of strict accuracy of speech, purged of all imaginative
elements, is a virtue which not all adults are able to practice, and
which is not a natural product of the child mind. We can not accept
Emerson's doctrine of infant Messiahs, and yet we can recognize very
fully the mission of the child in the home, the demand it makes for
tenderness, for patience, for thoughtfulness on the part of parents,
the hopes and fears and heart-searchings that it calls into play,
the aspirations that it promotes toward the realization, if for
its sake only, of a higher life. Froebel grasped a large measure
of truth in regard to children, but too much of sentiment, in our
opinion, entered into his treatment of them. In the full light of the
doctrine of evolution we take them as they are, and help them to work
out under favorable conditions that development of which they are
capable. We are not imposed upon by childish imitations of mature
virtues, and are rather disposed to repress recognized tendencies to
precocity; but we believe that the germs of good are sown in every
normal human being, and that, unless killed by most unwise treatment,
they will fructify in due time.
What we may well consider seriously is whether our modern modes of
life enable us to do that justice to children which evolutionary
teaching requires. Can true health of body and mind be conciliated
with social ambition or with commercial ambition? Are we not hampered
at every turn by false schemes of education, the object of which
is to turn out certain conventional products? How many of us can
rise up in effective rebellion against the very fashions that in
our hearts we most condemn? Before there can be anything like a
perfect education for the young there must be a much more fully
developed sense of duty than we see as yet in the older generation.
The doctrine of evolution is putting the key to a true system into
our hands; but to use that key aright requires courage and high
purpose--qualities that are not of everyday occurrence. Still, it is
matter of congratulation that the truth is not far from us. It is
well established in our theories, and one of these days we may hope
it will gain a wide and secure footing in our practice.
_DAVID AMES WELLS._
In the death of David A. Wells, which occurred at his home in
Norwich, Connecticut, on the 5th of November, 1898, America has
lost one of her ablest and most productive men of letters and
science a distinguished representative. Out of a life of seventy
years it may fairly be said that Mr. Wells gave fifty of them to
intellectual pursuits, which were mainly devoted to the advance of
science and its application to practical affairs. After passing the
period of early study, and particularly since he became interested
in economic questions, much of his work was in the line of original
investigation, the results of which have from time to time been given
to the public either through his books or in the magazines. Another
and more conspicuous feature of his career, the one perhaps that
made him best known at home and first gave him reputation abroad,
was the valuable service that he rendered the country at large in
straightening out the financial tangle the Government had got itself
into during and after the civil war. In this undertaking his great
store of learning, rare practical sagacity, and unwavering confidence
in the final result, carried him through to a brilliant success,
earning for him in high quarters the most flattering testimonials of
admiration and respect.
Looked at in the light of what he actually achieved, Mr. Wells's
preparation for his life work seems to have been almost an ideal one.
Gifted with a strong love of Nature and having a decidedly practical
turn of mind, he early showed a fondness for the study of science.
This led him, soon after graduating from Williams College in 1847,
to enter the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. Here
he completed the course with the first class that was graduated by
that institution in 1852. While studying in the scientific school
young Wells became the special pupil of Agassiz, and, as the sequel
shows, caught the enthusiasm with which that great master was wont to
inspire the young men who were fortunate enough to come within the
range of his influence. During this period Mr. Wells, in association
with Mr. George Bliss, began the compilation and publication of the
Annual of Scientific Discovery, which he continued for some sixteen
years. That he was a clever student with quite exceptional endowments
is seen in the circumstance that immediately after graduation he was
appointed assistant professor in the scientific school and lecturer
on physics and chemistry in Groton Academy, Massachusetts. He also,
between 1857 and 1863, prepared a series of scientific school books
embracing the subjects of physics, chemistry, and geology, and a
volume on the Science of Common Things, all of which attained a wide
circulation.
Thus for a period of nearly fifteen years Mr. Wells had devoted
himself assiduously to the cultivation of the physical sciences.
Beginning with the practical operations of the laboratory, where the
value of experiment and observation is made apparent, his work was
continued in the strengthening and developing experiences of the
teacher, and thence led up to that wider knowledge and that clearness
of exposition which a bright mind would acquire in the preparation
of a number of successful scientific class books. It may be presumed
that by this time he was thoroughly acquainted with scientific method
in its applications to the investigation and explanation of physical
phenomena. With the results this had yielded in building up the great
body of verified knowledge composing the several sciences he must
also have been familiar. Mentally alert and with sharpened powers
of observation, he was able to seize and classify the facts bearing
upon the problem in hand, and subject them to systematic processes of
scientific reasoning.
Such, in brief, was the training and such the equipment brought by
Mr. Wells to the study of economic questions when he first began to
write upon them in 1864. A better preparation for the work to which
he was to give the next thirty years of his life can scarcely be
imagined. While it is quite true that in entering this new field he
was to encounter a class of facts and variety of phenomena that were
of a very different order from those with which he had previously
been dealing, their apparently haphazard character did not deceive
him. Well versed in the practice of tracing effects to causes,
gifted with remarkable powers of insight, and thoroughly believing
that the methods of science would prove as available in the study of
economics as in other fields, he began his investigations without
misgiving, patiently accumulated and studied the facts, and when
conclusions were arrived at, no matter how contrary they might be
to current teaching, fearlessly announced and defended them. Though
half his life a firm believer in the doctrine of protection, when
Mr. Wells went to Europe for the Government in 1867 to investigate
the subject of tariff taxation, high and low tariff countries alike
were visited, with the determination to leave nothing undone that
would aid to a better understanding of the question. All the varied
aspects of the problem were carefully studied in connection with
the principal industries of the respective countries, and, finding
reason in the facts thus obtained to revise his opinions, he came
home a convert to free trade. For an account of what he had observed
during the course of his investigations, and of the conclusions
based thereon, the reader is referred to the fourth volume of his
reports as commissioner of internal revenue, published in 1869. His
book on Recent Economic Changes, and the papers on The Principles of
Taxation, that have appeared in this magazine during the last two
years, are records of equally painstaking research. Moreover, they
are both excellent examples of what a strict adherence to scientific
method has done and may yet be expected to do toward clearing up the
knotty problems in economics that are now engaging public attention.
United with his great learning, and a rare power of generalization,
Mr. Wells possessed in full measure that intellectual honesty which
is the indispensable characteristic of the true man of science. This
enabled him to follow without doubt or hesitation wherever the facts
might lead; and with his clear perception of their real import,
joined to his habit of independent thought, traits that are displayed
throughout all his more formal writings, they are what in our opinion
constitute his title to distinction. They give to his teachings,
which have already done more than any other agency that we know
toward placing the subject of political economy on a sound scientific
basis, a high and enduring character.
_A BORROWED FOUNDATION._
"The central idea of Professor Giddings's Principles of Sociology,
a work that has the honor of being the first independent attempt in
English to treat of sociology as such, is that we must postulate
on the part of human beings what he calls a _consciousness of
kind_. Critics of his volume have naturally told him that this is
essentially a philosophical idea, found in Hegel and in British
ethical writers of the eighteenth century."
We quote the above from an article by Professor Caldwell, entitled
Philosophy and the Newer Sociology, in the October Contemporary. We
are not prepared to dispute Professor Caldwell's statement that the
idea of the "consciousness of kind" may be found in the writers to
whom he refers; but it would have been very much to the point if he
had mentioned that it is to be found most clearly enunciated in Mr.
Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology. In an article contributed
to this magazine in December, 1896, Mr. Spencer took occasion to
point out that what Professor Giddings seemed to regard as an
_aperçu_ peculiar to himself had been distinctly formulated years
before in his own writings. In proof of this he quoted the following
passages:
"Sociality having thus commenced, and survival of the fittest tending
ever to maintain and increase it, it will be further strengthened by
the inherited effects of habit. _The perception of kindred beings,
perpetually seen, heard, and smelt, will come to form a predominant
part of consciousness-_-so predominant that absence of it will
inevitably cause discomfort." "Among creatures led step by step into
gregariousness, there will little by little be established a pleasure
in being together--a pleasure in the consciousness of one another's
presence--a pleasure simpler than, and quite distinct from, those
higher ones which it makes possible."
The fact is that there is much more in Spencer than most recent
writers have ever explored; and the newer sociologists would do well,
before putting forward claims to originality, to make sure that they
have not been anticipated by the veteran philosopher.
Scientific Literature.
SPECIAL BOOKS.
In _The Play of Animals_[59] we are offered a book upon an
essentially new topic; for, although much has been written concerning
the habits and intelligence of animals, no special consideration has
been given to their play or its psychic significance. The survey of
this virgin territory seems to the critical reader to have disclosed
such limitless area to Professor Groos that he fails to indicate its
legitimate boundaries. He confesses himself overcome by a sense of
its vastness, stating that the "versatility needed for a thorough
investigation is so comprehensive that it is unattainable by an
ordinary mortal."
Play, he finds, is not "an aimless activity carried on for its own
sake"; neither is it the product of surplus physical energy, as Mr.
Spencer defines it, for in youth there is playfulness without this
condition. Instincts useful in preserving the species appear before
they are seriously needed, and are utilized in play, which serves as
preparation for the tasks of life. "Animals do not play because they
are young, but have a period of youth in order to play."
The special ends accomplished by play are control of the body,
command of the means of locomotion, agility in pursuit of prey and
in escaping danger, and prowess in fighting. The games pursued
in attaining these ends are classified in nine groups, beginning
with those of experimentation and ending with those referred to
curiosity. They include plays of movement, hunting, fighting, love,
construction, nursing, and imitation. For all of these Professor
Groos finds but one instinct of play responsible, supplemented by
the instinct of imitation. He enters into an elaborate discussion
of instinct, giving an outline of Weismann's theory of heredity and
the views of various writers. He adopts Herbert Spencer's definition
of instinct as a complex reflex act, referring its origin to the
operation of natural selection, acknowledging the process to be
beyond our grasp. In seeking to explain bird song and the love play
of animals, the theory of sexual selection is not accepted by him
without qualification; a modification of the Darwinian principle
is suggested in which the female exerts an unconscious choice.
The psychic characteristics of play are the pleasure following
satisfaction of instinct, energetic action and joy in the acquirement
of power. The animal at first masters its own bodily movements, then
seeks the conquest of other animals and inanimate objects. When a
certain facility in play has been gained a higher intellectual stage
is entered upon, that of make-believe, or playing a part. This state
of conscious self-illusion is reached by many of the higher animals.
Psychically, it indicates a divided consciousness, and occupies a
place between the ordinary state and the abnormal ones of hypnosis
and hysteria. To this condition Professor Groos ascribes the genesis
of artistic production, an hypothesis that he has elaborated more
fully in _Einleitung in die Aesthetik_.
The experimental plays of animals, divided into those of courtship,
imitation, and construction, correspond to the principles of self
exhibition, imitation, and decoration, which are claimed to be the
motives of human art. The acquirement of power through play develops
a feeling of freedom, and this the artist likewise seeks to realize
in the world of ideals.
Artists will not probably acknowledge that "life is earnest, art is
playful," nor moralists agree that "man is only human when he plays,
for there is no real freedom in the sphere of experience," yet both
may find food for thought in Professor Groos's analysis of play.
FOOTNOTE
[59] The Play of Animals. By Karl Groos. Translated by Elizabeth L.
Baldwin. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 341. Price, $1.75.
* * * * *
In the spasm of unreasoning hostility to Spain which has come over
the people of the United States, succeeding a period of effusive
admiration, the public are apt to forget that that nation has done
anything creditable for the promotion of civilization. Yet, leaving
out other fields of culture for the present, it has produced two
painters who rank among the great masters, besides numerous secondary
artists, rivals of any of that grade in the world, and a voluminous
literature which George Ticknor thought it worth while to make the
study of his life, and which inspired the pens of Irving, Longfellow
and Lockhart. One of the works of this literature ranks among the
world's greatest classics, and has been, perhaps, after the Bible
and Shakespeare more universally read than any other book; and
numerous other works--chiefly romances--have furnished patterns or
themes for the poets, novelists, and dramatists of other nations.
Mr. _Fitz Maurice Kelly's_ excellent and convenient _History of
Spanish Literature_[60] therefore comes in good time to refresh
our memories concerning these facts. One does not have to go very
far in the history to find that of the great Latin writers of the
age of the Cæsars, the two Senecas, Lucan the poet of Pharsalia,
Martial the epigrammatist, and Quintilian the rhetorician--still
an authority--and many minor writers, "were Spaniards as well as
Romans." It also appears that of what Gibbon declared to have been
the happiest epoch of man's history--from the death of Domitian to
the accession of Commodus, seventy of the eighty years, if we take
the liberty, as Mr. Kelly does, of counting Marcus Aurelius as a
Cordovan, were passed beneath the scepter of the Spanish Cæsars.
Prudentius, a distinguished Latin Christian writer of a succeeding
age, was also a Spaniard. Although there were "archaic" works of
_trovadors_ before that time, traditionally preserved by _juglars_,
Spanish literature proper began in the twelfth century. It owed
much to French and Italian, and in course of time gave much back to
them. Among its earliest signs was the development of the romance
(ballad), while Arab writers (whose work Mr. Kelly considers of
doubtful value) and Jews, who are better spoken of, were early
contributors to it. The earliest works of importance were the
Mystery of the Magian Kings, one of the first plays in any modern
language, and the great heroic poem of the Cid, both anonymous.
The first Castilian poet whose name has reached us was Gonzalo de
Berceo, 1198 to 1264, who wrote much, and was, "if not an inventor,
the chief of a school." Permanent form was given to Spanish prose
by King Alfonso the Learned, 1226 to 1284, who, "like Bacon, took
all knowledge for his province, and in every department shone
pre-eminent." He had numerous collaborators, and "his example in so
many fields was followed"--among others (in some of them) by his
son and successor, Sancho IV. The Infanta, Juan Manuel, nephew of
Alfonso, in one of the stories of his Conde Lucanor--"one of the
books of the world"--created the germ of the Taming of the Shrew.
Passing a numerous list of writers of respectable merit, for whose
names even we have not room, we come to the age of the Catholic
kings and Charles V, when for a hundred and fifty years literature
most flourished in Spain. Among the features of this period are the
Amadis de Gaul--"the best in that kind"--which inspired Cervantes;
Columbus, who, though of Italian birth, "was probably the truest
Spaniard in all the Spains," the poet Garcilaso de la Vega, and
Bernal Diaz and other historians whose names dot Prescott's books.
Passing a large number of writers of mark whose works appeared in
this age, and stopping only to mention Alonzo de Ercilla y Zuñiga's
Araucana as the first literary work of real merit composed in either
American continent, we come to the age of Cervantes, whose story of
Don Quixote--"the friendless people's friend," as Browning styles
him--is not more distinguished for its satirical wit and humor than
for its kindly humanity; and Lope de Vega, that most prolific of
all dramatic authors, who "left no achievement unattempted," and
died lamented by a hundred and fifty-three Spanish and fifty Italian
authors, who sang his praises. Among other of the most distinguished
writers of this and succeeding periods are Mariana, "the greatest
of all Spanish historians"; Góngora, a famous poet in his day;
Quevedo; Tirse de Molina, the creator of Don Juan; Calderon, second
as a dramatist among Spaniards, if second, only to Lope de Vega, and
Alarcón his compeer; and Velasquez, great in art and not small in
letters. An interregnum came in during the reign of Carlos II, and
French influence made itself felt. The age of the Bourbons produced
among others the Benedictine Sarmiento, who as a botanist "won the
admiration and friendship of Linné." The present century has been
marked by the names of many authors of merit, novelists known to us
in translations, by an active movement of historical composition
developing brilliant monographs, and by a marked advance of
scholarship and tolerance, led by Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo; with a
tendency to produce "a breed of writers of the German type."
FOOTNOTE:
[60] A History of Spanish Literature. By James Fitz Maurice-Kelly.
New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Literature of the World Series.
Edited by Edmund Gosse.) Pp. 433. Price, $1.50.
GENERAL NOTICES.
The great importance of the problems of forestry and all that
pertains to them can not fail to be appreciated by any one who has
seen the devastation wrought in many sections of this country by
the "wood chopper." Forestry is one of the subjects where natural
science can step in and guide the way to economic success, and
where, in default of scientific methods, economically fatal results
inevitably ensue. The preservation of forests has been an important
problem in Europe for many years, but until quite recently it has
received little attention in the United States. One of the pioneers
in the field of forestry in this country was Franklin B. Hough,
whose Elements of Forestry is still a used and useful manual.
Among his many schemes for attracting attention and study to this
important subject was one of making actual sections of the wood
of American trees, and arranging them in a compact and attractive
manner for general distribution. This idea he never carried out,
and it has remained for his son, Mr. R. B. Hough, to finally carry
out the scheme, by publishing a complete series of such sections,
carefully prepared and compactly bound.[61] In Part I of the series
there are cuttings representing twenty-five species of American
trees. The sections are sufficiently thin to allow of their study
by transmitted light. There are three cuttings from each species,
transverse, radial, and tangential to the grain. An accompanying text
gives a condensed description of each tree, including its physical
properties, uses, and habitat. These descriptions are preceded by a
useful introduction to the study of general botany, describing the
methods of distinguishing and naming the various parts of plants
and trees, and giving an account of their structure and methods of
growth. The actual wood sections, quite apart from their scientific
value, are worthy of attention because of their great beauty. They
are substantially mounted on black cardboard, each card containing
the three sections of a species, and its common name in English,
French, German, and Spanish. The thinness of the cuttings makes it
possible to use them as transparencies, thus bringing out the texture
of the wood in a very effective way.
Prof. _Charles Reid Barnes_ is impressed with the fact that while
laboratory work has become nearly universal in botany, and laboratory
manuals are numerous, there is still a lack of books giving an
elementary account of the form and functions of plants of all groups.
To supply this want he offers _Plant Life_[62] as an attempt to
exhibit the variety and progressive complexity of the vegetative
body; to discuss the more important functions; to explain the unity
of plan in both the structure and action of the reproductive organs;
and to give an outline of the more striking ways in which plants
adapt themselves to the world about them. He has made the effort to
treat these subjects so that, however much the student may still have
to learn, he will have little to unlearn. The book is not intended
to be memorized and recited, but to be intelligible to pupils
from thirteen to eighteen years of age who are engaged in genuine
laboratory study under the direction "of a live teacher who has
studied far more botany than he is trying to teach." It is adapted
to use supplementarily to any laboratory guide or to the directions
prepared by the teacher. The directions are made fullest in relation
to cryptogams and physiology, because these fields are at present
most unfamiliar to teachers.