in order to prepare the mind for the thinking that issues in knowing.
The applications of color in the railway service, in navigation, and in
the arts will create an interest in the study of color without which the
presentation of the fundamental ideas may be in vain. Several lecturers
have admitted that they failed, in the presentation of color lessons,
to hold the attention of their pupil-teachers until they excited an
interest in color by indicating important applications. This statement of
applications by way of preparation must, however, not be confounded with
the applications which should follow the framing of general propositions
and the cognition of general truths.
The hypotheses of the scientist correspond to the general truths and
principles which instruction always aims to reach. In all except the most
advanced investigations, the pupil should work under the guidance of
principles that have risen above the hypothetical stage. He should think
under the inspiration of well-established truths. He should master the
known in his chosen field before he seeks to enlarge the boundaries of
human knowledge by invasions into the realm of the unknown. Sad is the
spectacle of a talented mind wasting its strength in fruitless efforts to
rediscover what is already well established.
[Sidenote: The formulation of truths.]
[Sidenote: Similarity in diversity.]
The formulation of truths in mathematical studies is sometimes carried to
extremes. The pupil may at times be allowed to work under the guidance
of principles which he knows by implication, and which he has never had
occasion to formulate in explicit statements. The formulation of the
principles of algebra can be carried into the statement of hundreds of
general propositions. If the pupil is asked to fix all these in the
crystallized or specific form given in the text-book, it may result in a
prodigious waste of time. Furthermore, the effort to follow invariably
any formal steps in the order of instruction is apt to make the
instruction unduly formal and lifeless. No thinker can afford to think
in the set forms of the syllogism while evolving a train of thought.
Conscious conformity to these hinders progress in the spontaneous
evolution of germinal ideas. In like manner, although the student of
pedagogy may find a guide in the rules and principles of his science
while preparing the subject-matter of a lesson, yet, in giving the
instruction, the truth must be the object of chief regard, the centre of
attention in consciousness. Constant thought of prescribed steps makes
the teaching stiff and formal, and dissipates the joyous interest which
accompanies free and spontaneous thinking. Formal rules are very often
like hobbles on the feet of the horse. They impede his speed, rob him of
half his power and energy, and spoil his enjoyment of the open field.
Bearing this in mind, the young teacher will perhaps not be harmed by
the advice that in his teaching he should ever seek to lead the learner
to clear and distinct perception of likenesses and differences in the
subject-matter of each and every lesson. The newer methods of teaching a
beginner to read, wisely draw attention to the points of similarity and
difference in the shapes and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. They
even go to the extreme of comparing sounds with the noises of animals,
with which the child in the larger cities is totally unfamiliar. This
error is not half so bad as the opposite extreme. Very much of the bad
teaching by which the schools are afflicted arises from the assumption
that the learner sees the points of agreement and difference which are
so very obvious to the mature mind of the teacher. The consequence is
mental confusion and loss of the joy of definite thinking. The detection
of likeness in objects having many points of diversity gives the mind an
agreeable surprise. This emotion is an element in the pleasure afforded
by the various forms of wit, metaphor, and allegory. Professor Bain
has shown how greatly progress in science and art is indebted to the
discovery of similarity in the midst of great diversity.[49] Much of the
child’s progress in knowledge must be ascribed to the same principle.
Children notice points of similarity that often escape older persons. On
seeing the picture of a tiger, they call it a cat. A mother who showed
her little daughter, just beginning to talk, the caricature of a man
prominent in the public eye, was surprised to hear the child exclaim,
“Papa.” It was the child’s word for man, as she afterwards discovered.
Where she saw contrast, the child only noticed the points of similarity
between one man and another. As the power of discrimination advances,
the mind pays more attention to points of difference than to points
of likeness. Indistinguishableness gives way to clear and distinct
knowledge. With the further growth of intelligence the mind seeks the
hidden resemblances in objects far removed from one another in space
and time, or by surface appearances. At first sight the bat seems like
a bird, because it can fly. Scientific discrimination assigns it to the
class of mammals. The identification of the lightning in the clouds with
the sparks of the electric machine gave Franklin world-wide reputation
as a philosopher. The identification of the force which causes bodies
to fall to the earth with the force which holds the moon in its orbit,
and with the kind of force by which the sun attracts the bodies of the
solar system, has been justly called the greatest example of the power
to detect likeness in the midst of diversity. The power of detecting
similarity in diversity should be appealed to whenever it is helpful
either for purposes of illustration or discovery. Algebra is shorn
of half its difficulty as soon as the learner is led to see that the
operations in multiplication, division, involution and evolution of
monomials turn on signs, coefficients, and exponents. Let him grasp the
thought that the words add, subtract, multiply, and divide respectively
express the law of exponents in the four operations above named; and he
will not only escape the perplexities of the average student in the more
difficult operations of ordinary algebra, but he will also see at a
glance the beautiful truth which underlies the manipulation of logarithms.
[Sidenote: The thinking that ripens into knowing.]
Thinking that ripens in knowing involves comparison, discrimination, and
formation of judgments. Through the detection of likeness and unlikeness
in objects and their relations, judgments are formed, inferences are
made, and conclusions are drawn, which mark the transition from thinking
to knowing. Discrimination, identification, judgment, reasoning,
definition, division, and classification mark the stages through which
the mind passes in thinking things, their relations, more especially
their causes, effects, laws, and ends. Analysis and synthesis, induction
and deduction, are the processes by which the intellect explores the
content and extent of concepts, and passes to general principles and
truths, and to their applications in thought and action. As processes of
mental activity, these are discussed in detail by the psychologist. The
laws of thought to which they must conform in order to be correct are set
forth in treatises on logic. It would be a mistake to underestimate the
value of a knowledge of logic and psychology; but neither of them can
supply the place and function of the living teacher. He who would learn
to think in some special line of research should go to a master of that
specialty, learn of him what is well established in the chosen field of
study, imbibe his methods of work, think his thoughts, catch his spirit,
and follow his advice until the hour for independent investigation comes.
Great is the tonic effect of a university atmosphere; but greater still
is the bracing influence of the atmosphere created by a specialist who is
both a master in his department and a master in the art of teaching. The
choice of a teacher is of more account than the choice of a university,
either at home or abroad.
[Sidenote: Knowing involves more than mere thinking.]
Thinking is not the whole of knowing. Feeling and willing play an
important part in thinking and knowing. Words like heretic, sceptic,
and sophist have a history which shows the distrust of mankind in pure
intellectual effort. It would be hard to find a better commentary on the
effect of a perverse heart upon the operations of the intellect than the
following paragraph from Max Müller, although it was penned for a purpose
entirely different from the use here made of it.
“No title could have been more honorable at first than was that of
Sophistes. It was applied to the greatest thinkers, such as Socrates and
Plato; nay, it was not considered irreverent to apply it to the Creator
of the Universe. Afterwards it sank in value because applied to one who
cared neither for truth nor for wisdom, but only for victory, till to be
called a sophist became almost an insult. Again, what name could have
been more creditable in its original acceptation than that of sceptic?
It meant thoughtful, reflective, and was a name given to philosophers
who carefully looked at all the bearings of a case before they ventured
to pronounce a positive opinion. And now a sceptic is almost a term
of reproach, very much like heretic,—a word which likewise began by
conveying what was most honorable, a power to choose between right and
wrong, till it was stamped with the meaning of choosing from sheer
perversity what the majority holds to be wrong.”[50]
There are realms in which thought cannot beget knowledge of the truth
until there is a radical change in the wishes and desires of the heart,
in the choice and alms of the will, in the movings of the inmost depths
of the soul.
XVIII
THINKING AND FEELING
There is much contention among men whether thought or feeling
is the better; but feeling is the bow and thought the arrow;
and every good archer must have both. Alone, one is as helpless
as the other. The head gives artillery; the heart, powder. The
one aims, and the other fires.
BEECHER.
It may be noted that medical men, who are a scientific
class, and, therefore, more than commonly aware of the great
importance of disinterestedness in intellectual action, never
trust their own judgment when they feel the approach of
disease. They know that it is difficult for a man, however
learned in medicine, to arrive at accurate conclusions about
the state of a human body that concerns him so nearly as his
own, even though the person who suffers has the advantage of
actually experiencing the morbid sensations.
HAMERTON.
When pupils are encouraged to make for themselves fresh
combinations of things already known, additional progress is
certain. Variety of exercise in this way is as attractive to
children as many of their games. If, when such exercises are
given, the rivalry involved in taking places were discontinued,
and all extraneous excitement avoided, the play of intelligence
would bring an ample reward. I plead for discontinuance of
rivalry in such exercises, because, while it stimulates
some, in other cases it hinders and even stops the action
of intelligence. If any teacher doubts this, he may subject
a class to experiment by watching the faces of the pupils,
and next by asking from the child who has been corrected an
explanation of the reason for the correction. Hurry in such
things is an injury, and so is all commingling of antagonistic
motives. All fear hinders intellectual action, and the fear
of wounded ambition offers no exception to the rule. The fear
of being punished is more seriously detrimental than any
other form of fear which can be stirred. It is essentially
antagonistic to the action of intelligence. Let mind have free
play.
CALDERWOOD.
XVIII
THINKING AND FEELING
[Sidenote: Bodily conditions.]
In all our thinking it is very important to get a clear and full vision
of the thing to be known. This is not always as easy as it seems. Like
Nelson in the battle of Copenhagen, we may consciously turn the blind eye
towards what we do not like and exclaim, “I do not see it.” The lenses
through which we gaze may be green, or smoked, or ill-adjusted, and thus
without suspecting it we may see things in false colors or distorted
shapes. Our bodily condition may color everything we see and think. In
health and high animal spirits every thought is rose-colored. In periods
of disease and depression everything we think seems to pass, “like a
great bruise, through yellow, green, blue, purple, to black. A liver
complaint causes the universe to be shrouded in gray; and the gout covers
it with inky pall, and makes us think our best friends little better than
fiends in disguise.”
[Sidenote: Prejudice.]
One of the greatest hinderances to correct thinking is prejudice. Hence
all who have presumed to give advice on the conduct of the understanding
have had something to say concerning prejudice. Bacon has a chapter
on the idols of the mind, and Locke contends that we should never be
in love with any opinion. In a charming little volume on the “Art of
Thinking,” Knowlson has a chapter in which he enumerates and discusses
the prejudices arising from birth, nationality, temperament, theory, and
unintelligent conservatism. The list might easily be enlarged. Close
analysis must convince any one that feeling strengthens all forms of
prejudice, and there are very few, if any, fields of thought in which
it is not essential for the attainment of truth to divest ourselves
of preconceived notions and the resultant feelings, and to weigh the
arguments on both sides of a question before reaching a conclusion.
[Sidenote: The wishes of the heart and the conclusions of the intellect.]
A student may take up geometry with a feeling of prejudice for or against
the study, based upon what he has heard from others concerning its
difficulties or the teacher who gives the instruction; but after he has
mastered the demonstration of a theorem he does not lie awake at night
wishing the opposite were true. In the realms of mathematics the wishes
of the heart are not in conflict with the conclusions of the intellect.
In the domain of ethical, social, historical, or religious truth the head
often says one thing and the heart another. “We see plainly enough what
we ought to think or do, but we feel an irresistible inclination to think
or do something else.” In most of the instances in which the study of
science has led to agnosticism the wish was father to the thought. When
two men argue the same question, weighing the same arguments and reaching
opposite conclusions, as did Stonewall Jackson and his father-in-law at
the outbreak of the Civil War, the inclinations and wishes of the heart
must have influenced their thinking.
[Sidenote: Feeling an element in all mental activity.]
Feeling is an element in all forms of mental activity. The intellect
never acts without stirring the emotions. The teacher who reproved a
pupil for showing signs of pleasure and delight over the reasoning of
Euclid, saying, “Euclid knows no emotion,” must have been a novice in the
art of introspection. Who cannot recall the thrill of delight with which
he first finished the proof of the Pythagorean proposition? Mathematics
is considered difficult; the emotions connected with victory and mastery
sustain the student as he advances from conquest to conquest. The effort
which some thinkers make to reduce the phenomena of the universe to a
few universal principles is, without doubt, sustained and stimulated by
a feeling that there must be unity in the midst of the most manifold
diversity.
[Sidenote: Descartes.]
Scientists and philosophers are prone to imagine themselves free from
the prejudices which warp the thinking of the common mind. Descartes
started to divest himself of all preconceived notions; yet he could not
divest himself of the notion that he was immensely superior to other men.
“This French philosopher regarded himself as almost infallible, and had
a scorn of all his contemporaries. He praised Harvey, but says he only
learned a single point from him; Galileo was only good in music, and here
he attributed to him the elder Galileo’s work; Pascal and Campanella are
pooh-poohed. Here is an instance of how pride in one’s own work may beget
a cheap cynicism with regard to the work of others; and how as a feeling
it blinds the mind to excellences outside those we have agreed to call
our own.” Of men in general Jevons, in his treatise on the “Physical
Sciences,”[51] says,—
“It is difficult to find persons who can with perfect fairness register
facts for and against their own peculiar views. Among uncultivated
observers, the tendency to remark favorable and to forget unfavorable
events is so great that no reliance can be placed upon their supposed
observations. Thus arises the enduring fallacy that the changes of the
weather coincide in some way with the changes of the moon, although exact
and impartial registers give no countenance to the fact. The whole race
of prophets and quacks live on the overwhelming effect of one success
compared with hundreds of failures which are unmentioned or forgotten.
As Bacon says, ‘Men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss.’
And we should do well to bear in mind the ancient story, quoted by Bacon,
of one who in Pagan times was shown a temple with a picture of all the
persons who had been saved from shipwreck after paying their vows. When
asked whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods, ‘Ay,’
he answered; ‘but where are they painted that were drowned after their
vows?’”
Sometimes the feeling that a given way of looking at things is
undoubtedly correct prevents the mind from thinking at all. A lady
claimed that she had been taught to accept the statements of the Bible
in their literal sense, and that in this belief she was going to live
and die. She was asked to read the twenty-third Psalm. At the end of
the first verse she was asked whether she could be anything else than a
sheep if the Lord was literally her Shepherd. When, a little farther on,
she was asked in what green pastures she had been lying down, she burst
into tears. Her condition, and that of hundreds of thousands of others,
is correctly given in the opening pages of J. S. Mill’s “Subjection of
Women.”[52]
[Sidenote: J. S. Mill on the influence of feeling upon thinking.]
“So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains
rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight
of argument against it. For if it were accepted as the result of
argument, the refutation of the argument might shake the solidity of
the conviction; but when it rests solely on feeling, the worse it fares
in argumentative contest the more persuaded its adherents are that
their feeling must have some deeper ground which the arguments do not
reach; and while the feeling remains, it is always throwing up fresh
intrenchments of argument to fill any breach made in the old.”
[Sidenote: Regard for truth.]
When a man’s opinions are, as he thinks, grounded in first principles,
it is but natural that he should be unwilling to abandon them without
a struggle to intrench himself behind impregnable arguments. If he has
reached his conclusions as the result of long and careful inquiry, he has
a right to hold on to them with more than ordinary tenacity. The same
regard for truth which led him to form an opinion should, however, make
him willing to change whenever he finds himself in the wrong. He should
avoid the frame of mind of the Scotch lady who, when it was charged that
she was not open to conviction, exclaimed, “Not open to conviction! I
scorn the imputation. But,” added she, after a moment’s pause, “show me
the man who can convince me.” The secret of this tenacity of opinion is
not love of truth, but love of self,—in one word, pride.
[Sidenote: Emotions are helpful.]
[Sidenote: Dr. Brumbaugh on the emotions.]
In view of the hinderances which certain kinds or degrees of feeling
throw into the way of thinking, it might be inferred that the thinker
must suppress the element of feeling in his inner life. No greater
mistake could be made. If the Creator endowed man with the power to
think, to feel, and to will, these several activities of the mind are
not designed to be in conflict, and so long as any one of them is
not perverted or allowed to run to excess, it necessarily aids and
strengthens the others in their normal functions. Whilst it is a duty to
overcome prejudice, fear, embarrassment, anxiety, and other emotions or
degrees of emotion which interfere with our ability to think correctly,
especially when face to face with an audience or with our peers and
superiors, it is equally a duty to cultivate the emotions which
stimulate thinking and strengthen the will. Without the ability to feel
strongly, it is impossible to stir the hearts of an audience. A strong
character is impossible without strong emotion. Jesus could weep and
denounce. He showed the strongest emotion in his public discourses and
at all the great turning-points of his life. The men and women who have
done most for the race showed the element of strong feeling in their
thinking and in their efforts at philanthropy and reform. It is the
feeling of patriotism that sustains the soldier on the field of battle
and the statesman in the midst of public criticism and personal abuse.
According to Plato, the feeling with which education begins is wonder.
“The elementary school,” says Dr. Brumbaugh, “does its best work when it
creates a desire to learn, not when it satisfies the learner.” Teachers
everywhere are beginning to see that it is the mission of the elementary
school to beget a desire for knowledge that will carry the pupil onward
and upward, and not to make him feel satisfied with a mere knowledge of
the rudiments, so that he will leave the school at the first opportunity
to earn a penny.
Dr. Brumbaugh further says,—
“We must recognize the emotional life as the basis of appeal for all high
acting and high thinking. We can never make men by ignoring an essential
element in manliness. To live well, we must know clearly, feel keenly,
and act nobly; and, indeed, we shall have noble action only as we have
gladsome action,—action inspired of feeling, not of thought. The church
made men of great power because it made men of great feeling.”
[Sidenote: Playing upon the feelings.]
The close connection between thinking and feeling cannot be ignored
without serious detriment to the intellectual development of the pupil.
Some teachers play upon the feelings in ways that prevent accurate
and effective thinking. The tones of voice in which they speak, their
manner of putting questions and administering discipline, their lack of
self-control, and their frantic efforts to get and keep order cause the
pupils to feel ill at ease and destroy the calmness of soul, which is
the first condition of logical thinking. The skilful teacher calls into
play feelings like joy, hope, patriotism, that stimulate and invigorate
the whole intellectual life; he is extremely careful not to stir emotions
like fear, anger, and hate, which hinder clear and vigorous thinking.
[Sidenote: Responsibility for failure at examinations.]