e._, the kind that
leads children to take hold of and master their lessons more readily.
Interest is thus chiefly a means of overcoming distasteful tasks. It
is the merit of a direct or genuine interest that it aids in mastering
difficulties and in addition to this gives a permanent pleasure in
studies. One of the high aims of instruction is to implant a strong
permanent interest in studies that will last through school days and
after they are over.
A live interest springs most easily out of _knowledge subjects_ like
history and natural science. Formal studies like grammar and
arithmetic awaken it less easily. Herbart has classified the chief
kinds and sources of interest as follows: Interest in nature apart from
man, and interest in man, society, etc. In _nature_ and natural
objects as illustrated in the natural sciences there are three chief
kinds of interest. _Empirical_, which is stirred by the variety and
novelty of things seen. There is an attractiveness in the many faces
and moods of nature. Between the years of childhood and old age there
is scarcely a person who does not enjoy a walk or a ride in the open
air, where the variety of plant, bird, animal, and landscape makes a
pleasing panorama.
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