A desire
to restore one's health will produce great interest in a certain health
resort, like the Hot Springs, or in some method of treatment, as the
use of Koch's lymph. The desire for wealth and business success will
lead a merchant in the fur trade to take interest in seals and
seal-fishing, and in beavers, trapping, etc. The wish to gain a prize
will cause a child to take deep interest in a lesson. But in all these
cases desire _precedes_ interest. Interest, indeed, in the thing
itself for its own sake, is frequently not present. It is true in many
cases that indirect interest is not interest at all. It is a dangerous
thing in education to substitute _indirect_ for _direct_ or true
interest. The former often means the cultivation, primarily, of
certain inordinate desires or feelings, such as rivalry, pride,
jealousy, ambition, reputation, love of self. By appealing to the
selfish pride of children in getting lessons, hateful moral qualities
are sometimes started into active growth in the very effort to secure
the highest intellectual results and discipline. Giving a prize for
superiority often produces jealousy, unkindness, and deep-seated
ill-will where the cultivation of a proper natural interest would lead
to more kindly and sympathetic relations between the children.
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