LESSON XXIV. PERCEPTION AND EDUCATION. We Create our own Worlds. Professor Davidson says that to a very large extent every human being creates his own world. Careful reflection upon the conclusions reached in the two preceding lessons will convince us that this is true. We are all familiar with the ordinary assumption that the world exists outside of us, already made, and that the senses constitute a sort of transparent medium through which it impresses itself upon the mind. But we have learned that the material with which the senses originally furnish the mind is not a knowledge of the world, is not even a knowledge of definite sensations, but an indescribably confused and mixed-up mass of sentient experience, which Professor James has aptly described as one "blooming confusion." The Material. Now, the gradual transformation of this blooming confusion into the world in which each of us lives is the mind's own work. This blooming confusion constitutes the bricks out of which the mind erects that imposing and stately structure which the senses now seem to directly present to us as the world. Probably there is no sentence in this book which it will be more difficult for most of us cordially to assent to than this. But, as it seems to me of the first importance that we should vividly realize it, I beg to call attention to some illustrations of its truth in addition to the arguments of the preceding lessons. Illustrations. We all know that there is a difference between the world of the man blind from birth, and that of the man who can see; between that of the man deaf from birth, and that of the man who can hear. The world of the man blind from birth contains no colors; that of the deaf man, no sounds. As the blind man is shut out from a whole world that is open to us, so a man whose sense of sight is highly cultivated lives in a world into which the ordinary man can not enter. He sees a thousand delicate colors, a thousand gradations of light and shade, that are as entirely beyond the range of the ordinary man's vision as though they came through a new sense. Read Ruskin's essay on the sky and then say if the sky he saw and the sky which we see are the same. "Clear" or "cloudy" satisfies us as a description of the sky. That would be as inadequate a description of the sky as it would be of a typical American to say that he is a human being! The same kind of difference exists between the world of a man any of whose senses is well trained, and that of a man whose corresponding sense is untrained. Read Eve's description of Eden in Milton's Paradise Lost: 66 Fragrant the fertile Earth With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night, With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon, Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet" Read this and you will note how full Milton's world was of odors "fragrant the fertile Earth after soft showers" - and sounds "the silent Night," "charm of earliest birds and delicate shades of color "and sweet the coming on of grateful Evening mild." For a man who has never noticed the fragrance of fertile fields after soft showers, who has never noted the gradual dying of the day as grateful evening comes on, who has never been charmed by songs of earliest birds, these things are as though they did not exist; they form no part of the world in which he consciously lives; they are without effect upon his mental life. We Create our Moral Worlds. We create in the same sense our moral world. We remember some of the charges that were brought against Washington in the fierce party struggles of his administration — that he would not accept any office from 1783 to 1789 because there was none exalted enough to satisfy his ambition; that his professed wish, not to accept the presidency a second term, was a mere pretense made because he was afraid he could not be elected; that the fear that he could not be elected caused him to declare that he would not accept the presidency for a third term. It is altogether possible that many men believed these charges. Men who act from motives of self-interest alone can not realize the possibility of anything else. PROBLEM OF EDUCATION. 227 Problem of Education. The problem of education, then, is to help the pupil create the right kind of world, such a world as will form the basis for wise thought and intelligent action, at the same time that it contributes to the noblest pleasures of life. The right kind of so-called cultivation of the observing powers consists in helping the pupil to note these things which should enter into his world, with the hope that by this means he will acquire the power to continue the proper creation of his world. without help from teachers. Importance of the Training of Observation. - From this point of view, the overmastering importance of the training of observation becomes self-evident. Men pay great attention to the garments with which they clothe their bodies, to the houses with which they shelter themselves. How trifling are these things in value in comparison with the home which the mind must make for itself. For the world is the mind's home. Are we in such constant presence of law, order, and rationality as to make anything but rational action seem repulsive? Or is our world a world of vague and chaotic impressions, where things seem to happen by chance? Are we conscious of the beauties of sunrise and sunset, of spring and autumn, of hill and valley, of meadow and woodland, or are the great walls of nature's picture galleries blank, dreary spaces staring upon equally blank and dreary minds? Is the life of struggle and toil of the men and women about us lighted up for our thinking by some elements of unselfishness, by some bits of heroism, or does it differ from a pack of hounds, struggling to get some pieces of meat which have been thrown among them, only by some super ficial varnishes called politeness, regard for the opinion of others which have least influence precisely where they are needed most? The answer to all these questions depends on the nature of the world which we have made for ourselves. How Observation is Cultivated. When we so conceive the matter, and when we remember the occupations with which the child is afflicted in the average primary school — dreary, mechanical memorizing of a lot of dreary, unmeaning symbols-we can hardly help congratulating ourselves that the laws of most States forbid children to be sent to school before the age of six - before they have had some of that direct contact with nature which is the most potent stimulus to the proper conception of the world. Dr. Dewey tells us of a swimming-school in Chicago where all the motions are taught on dry land. And when a boy who had mastered the theory of swimming first tried to put it into practice, he was able to report the results of his experiment in a single word: "sunk." As well try to teach swimming on dry land, bicycling in a carriage, skating in summer as try to help a pupil form right conceptions of the world except through constant contact with it. Dr. Harris calls Colonel Parker the ideal primary teacher, and in Colonel Parker's school the primary pupils spent the greater part of their time out-of-doors. Opinion of School Authorities. But this is a waste of time, the school authorities are likely to say. They think it better for us to employ our pupils in memorizing the names of the capitals of the various countries of the |