IMAGINATION AND GEOGRAPHY. 269 Imagination and Geography. But while the various subjects mentioned above afford scope for the cultivation of the imagination, we shall, of course, bear in mind that the subjects especially adapted to its training in the public schools are history, geography, and reading. We should prepare to teach history in part by getting a thorough comprehension of the motives of the men who played a leading part in history; and we should endeavor to give our pupils such insight into their characters as to check the tendency to unqualified praise and blame. We should also try to give them the power to hold in their minds complex groups of facts, that they may see their relations to each other. In descriptive geography, we should try to leave in their minds definite and clear images of the countries they are studying. See the kind of knowledge of Tasmania Dr. Arnold wanted: "Will you describe to me the general aspect of the country round Hobart Town? To this day I never could meet with a description of the common face of the country about New York or Boston or Philadelphia, and therefore I have no distinct ideas of it. Is your country plain or undulating, your valleys deep or shallow, curving, or with steep sides and flat bottoms? Are your fields large or small, parted by hedges or stone walls, with single trees about them, or patches of wood here and there? Are there many scattered houses, and what are they built of brick, wood, or stone? And what are the hills and streams like ridges or with waving summits, with plain sides or indented with combs, full of springs or dry, and what is their geology?" Such a knowledge of the look of a country we want to get and give our pupils, and such knowledge can not fail to increase the power to form vivid images of things. Imagination and Reading. One of Mr. Galton's incidents will enable us to see the difference between the proper and the improper use of the imagination in reading. "I want to tell you about a boat," he said to a company one day, and, before proceeding further, he asked them to tell him what his words suggested. "One person, a young lady, said that she immediately saw the image of a rather large boat pushing off from the shore, and that it was full of ladies and gentlemen, the ladies being dressed in blue and white." It is unnecessary to say that that kind of imagination interferes with abstract thought. "Another person, who was accustomed to philosophize, said that the word 'boat' had aroused no definite image because he had purposely held his mind in suspense." But if Mr. Galton had gone on: "The boat was a four-oared racingboat, it was passing quickly to the left just in front of me, and the men were bending forward to take a fresh stroke," then his hearers should have formed a picture; and the more vivid, detailed, and exact the picture, the more completely the imagination would have subserved its proper function. In the teaching of reading, then, discourage your pupils from forming definite images corresponding to general terms, but encourage them to form exact and detailed images corresponding to particular terms. -- Child Study and Imagination. But there are other suggestions that I think we should get from this study of imagination. We have seen how universally active the constructive imagination is, and yet that it depends for its materials upon the reproductive imagination. We see, therefore, from a new point of view the necessity of making a careful study of our pupils. You would not hire a man to build a house without furnishing the necessary materials. Be equally reasonable with your pupils, and do not expect them to build images out of nothing. Many a little boy or girl has an utterly erroneous idea of an ocean, because the teacher has not taken pains to dwell on the experiences the images of which would have made the required activity of the constructive imagination possible. But with all the pains you may take, if you want to be sure that your pupils have performed the necessary acts of constructive imagination, there is but one way by questioning. We are constantly talking to our pupils about matters that, by long reading and reflection, have become familiar to us. First comprehended with difficulty, they have become so simple that we forget how they looked when our minds got their first glimpse of them. We can hardly realize that what is so simple to us should be difficult to any one, and we never shall realize it save by everlasting questioning. QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT. 1. Summarize the conclusions reached in the last lesson. 2. Contrast the ordinary ideas of imagination with that set forth in this lesson. 3. Why is it that the works of "creative imagination" are often beyond the comprehension of the age in which they were produced? 4. Show the influence of the feelings on constructive imagination, and of the constructive imagination on the feelings. 5. Account for strong partisanship. 6. What is "the severance of feeling from will "? 7. Show the place and importance of imagination in our mental life. 8. What is breadth of culture, and how can it be gained? 9. What uses should be made of the imagination in teaching history, geography, and reading? SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 1. Mathematicians and musicians to-day understand with ease Newton's Principia and Beethoven's Grand Symphony; account for the fact. 2. Make a study of the minds of the children you meet for the purpose of learning (1) what they have formed images of; and (2) to what an extent their images are due to their social surroundings, and to what an extent to the common impulses of childhood. 3. How would you try to cultivate a spirit of open-mindedness? 4. What subject in the public school course offers the best material for this purpose? 5. How would you try to prevent the severance of feeling from will? 6. Do persons who are "naturally suspicious" get pleasure from indulging in their suspicions, even when what they suspect is unpleasant? LESSON XXIX. CONCEPTION. What the Mind Does in Conception. All The word "dog" evidently does not mean the same as "this dog." "This dog" may be a long-haired, long-nosed, long-eared black dog, with white spots on his back; while "dog" is the name not only of this dog, but of all dogs whatever. The same is true, of course, of all general names. general names are names of classes-names that are applicable to every individual of the class-while particular names, such as proper nouns and common nouns, limited by words like "this" and "that," are names that can be applied in the same sense to but one individual. How did the mind get this power—this power to use classnames intelligently? We never see a class;1 we only see individuals. Classes do not make themselves known to us through any of the senses. How, then, does the mind form an idea of a class? To answer that question is to state what the mind does in conception, for conception is that act of the mind by which it forms an idea of a class, or that act of the mind that enables us to use general names intelligently. 1 It is, of course, understood that I am using the word "class" to denote an indefinite number of individuals that resemble each other in certain particulars. |