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other mechanical artifices on which they are accustomed to prop their minds. But my main desire has been to make them conceive, and, if possible, reproduce sympathetically in their imagination, the mental life of their pupil as the sort of active unity which he himself feels it to be. He doesn't chop himself into distinct processes and compartments; and it would have frustrated this deeper purpose of my book to make it look, when printed, like a Baedeker's handbook of travel or a text-book of arithmetic. So far as books printed like this book force the fluidity of the facts upon the young teacher's attention, so far I am sure they tend to do his intellect a service, even though they may leave unsatisfied a craving (not altogether without its legitimate grounds) for more nomenclature, head-lines, and subdivisions.

Readers acquainted with my larger books on Psychology will meet much familiar phraseology. In the chapters on habit and memory I have even copied several pages verbatim, but I do not know that apology is needed for such plagiarism as this.

The talks to students, which conclude the volume, were written in response to invitations to deliver 'addresses' to students at women's colleges. The first one was to the graduating class of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. Properly, it contin

PREFACE

ues the series of talks to teachers. The second and the third address belong together, and continue another line of thought.

I wish I were able to make the second, 'On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings,' more impressive. It is more than the mere piece of sentimentalism which it may seem to some readers. It connects itself with a definite view of the world and of our moral relations to the same. Those who have done me the honor of reading my volume of philosophic essays will recognize that I mean the pluralistic or individualistic philosophy. According to that philosophy, the truth is too great for any one actual mind, even though that mind be dubbed 'the Absolute,' to know the whole of it. The facts and worths of life need many cognizers to take them in. There is no point of view absolutely public and universal. Private and uncommunicable perceptions always remain over, and the worst of it is that those who look for them from the outside never know where.

The practical consequence of such a philosophy is the well-known democratic respect for the sacredness of individuality,—is, at any rate, the outward toler ance of whatever is not itself intolerant. These phrases are so familiar that they sound now rather dead in our ears. Once they had a passionate inner meaning. Such a passionate inner meaning they may

easily acquire again if the pretension of our nation to inflict its own inner ideals and institutions vi et armis upon Orientals should meet with a resistance as obdurate as so far it has been gallant and spirited. Religiously and philosophically, our ancient national doctrine of live and let live may prove to have a far deeper meaning than our people now seem to imagine it to possess.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March, 1899.

CONTENTS.

TALKS TO TEACHERS.

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I. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE TEACHING ART
The American educational organization, 3
What teachers may expect from psychology, 5-
Teaching methods must agree with psychology,
but cannot be immediately deduced therefrom, 7—
The science of teaching and the science of war,
9-The educational uses of psychology defined,
10—The teacher's duty toward child-study, 12.

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Our mental life is a succession of conscious
'fields,' 15-They have a focus and a margin,
18-This description contrasted with the theory
of ‘ideas,' 20—Wundt's conclusions, 20, note.

III. THE CHILD AS A BEHAVING ORGANISM

Mind as pure reason and mind as practical
guide, 22-The latter view the more fashionable
one to-day, 23-It will be adopted in this work,
24-Why so? 25-The teacher's function is to
train pupils to behavior, 28.

IV. EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR

Education defined, 29-Conduct is always its
outcome, 30-Different national ideals: Germany
and England, 31.

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V. THE NECESSITY OF REACTIONS

No impression without expression, 33-Verbal
reproduction, 34— Manual training, 35-Pupils
should know their 'marks,' 37.

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The acquired reactions must be preceded by
native ones, 38-Illustration: teaching child to
ask instead of snatching, 39-Man has more in-
stincts than other mammals, 43.

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Fear and love, 45-Curiosity, 45-Imitation,
48-Emulation, 49- Forbidden by Rousseau, 51
-His error, 52-Ambition, pugnacity, and pride.
Soft pedagogics and the fighting impulse, 54-
Ownership, 55-Its educational uses, 56-Con-
structiveness, 58-Manual teaching, 59-Transi-
toriness in instincts, 60-Their order of succes-
sion, 61.

VIII. THE LAWS OF HABIT

Good and bad habits, 64-Habit due to plasti-
city of organic tissues, 65-The aim of education
is to make useful habits automatic, 66—Maxims
relative to habit-forming: 1. Strong initiative, 67

-2. No exception, 68-3. Seize first opportunity
to act, 69-4. Don't preach, 71- Darwin and
poetry: without exercise our capacities decay, 71
-The habit of mental and muscular relaxation,
74-Fifth maxim, keep the faculty of effort
trained, 75-Sudden conversions compatible with
laws of habit, 76-Momentous influence of habits
on character, 77.

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