Take away the personal interest we have in Ivanhoe, Quenten Durward,
etc., and Scott's glory would quickly depart. What empty and
spiritless annals would the life of Frederic the Great and Patrick
Henry furnish! _Social_ interest is the regard for the good or evil
fortune of societies and nations. Upon this depends our concern for
the progress of liberty and the struggle for free institutions in
England and other countries. On a smaller scale clubs, fraternities,
and local societies of all kinds are based on the social interest.
_Religious_ interest finally reveals our consciousness of man's
littleness and weakness, and of God's providence. As Pestalozzi says,
"God is the nearest resource of humanity." As individuals or nations
pass away their fate lies in His hand.
The _sources_ of interest therefore are varied and productive. Any one
of the six is unlimited in extent and variety. Together they
constitute a boundless field for a proper cultivation of the emotional
as well as intellectual nature of man. A study of these sources of
genuine interest and a partial view of their breadth and depth, reveals
to teachers what our present school courses tend strongly to make them
forget, namely, that the right kind of knowledge contains in itself the
stimulus and the germs to great mental exertion.
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