If it is
self-active, needing no artificial stimulus, let it alone. On the
contrary, if in a healthy pursuit of knowledge it brings the varied
mental powers into a natural sequence where they will strengthen and
support one another, it should be studied and used by teachers. It
would be very commonplace to say that each of the faculties or
activities involved in the inductive process should be disciplined and
strengthened by school studies. There is but little difference of
opinion on this subject, though some would lay more stress upon sense
training, some on memory, some on reasoning. The ground for this
general conviction is the notorious fact that with children every one
of these acts, is performed in a _faulty and superficial manner_. The
observations of children are very careless and unreliable. Even adults
are extremely negligent and inaccurate in their observations of natural
objects, persons, and phenomena. But the mental powers brought to bear
in observation are simple and elementary. The exercise of higher
mental powers, such as analysis, comparison, judgment, and reasoning,
is prone to be still more accidental and erroneous.
Acknowledging then the necessity for training all these powers, how can
it best be done? Not by delegating to each study the cultivation of
one kind or set of mental activities, but by observing that _the same
general process_ underlies the acquisition of knowledge in each
subject, and that all the kinds of mental life are brought into action
in nearly every study.
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